By Diana Novak Jones
Sept 28 (Reuters) – Florida’s attorney general asked a judge on Monday to bar OpenAI from developing new artificial intelligence models without outside oversight as part of its lawsuit accusing the company of harming children.
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Florida sued OpenAI in June accusing the company of misrepresenting the safety of its ChatGPT platform, saying it has harmed children by providing information to school shooters, offering guidance on self-harm and addicting young users.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in Monday’s filing also asked the court to order OpenAI to keep minors off ChatGPT and bar the company from giving its chat platform “human attributes.”
Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for OpenAI, said in a statement that the company had paused training its most capable models and won’t resume until they have additional safeguards in place.
“Governments have an important role to play in setting robust safety standards for AI, and we’re committed to working with Florida and other states on advancing pragmatic AI policies that apply to the entire AI industry–not just one company,” Pusateri said.
The filing cites recent comments from a former OpenAI employee and a current board member of the company, claiming that AI development could lead to the end of humankind and must be slowed down.
“Defendants claim they cannot stop barreling forward with their potentially civilization-ending endeavors unless they are forced to do so by the government,” Florida wrote in Monday’s filing. “They have asked the government to tie them to the mast.”
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Uthmeier, a Republican, is the first state attorney general to sue OpenAI over its impact on young users. The company is also facing lawsuits brought by individuals and families who say ChatGPT led people to harm themselves or others.
Florida’s lawsuit was prompted by a shooting at a Tallahassee university last year and a number of events in other states where ChatGPT allegedly provided information to people who went on to commit violent acts.
The company has denied it should be liable in those cases. It has said the chatbot provides information broadly available online, and that it continues to update its safety tools.
OpenAI and other AI companies are also facing questions about what kind of liability they could face for rogue AI attacks by their models, amid reports that some have attempted to hack into the websites of governmental agencies and companies.
(Reporting by Diana Novak JonesEditing by Nick Zieminski, Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
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