Key points
- Eight states sue over ChatGPT's safety for children
- Several also seek restrictions on AI testing
- How the new cases differ from Florida's lawsuit
Eight states sued OpenAI on October 14, alleging that ChatGPT harms children and that the company misled parents about its safety. Several also want courts to restrict how OpenAI tests advanced AI models, extending the cases beyond its consumer chatbot.
The lawsuits bring the number of states suing OpenAI to nine, including Florida. They add to cases brought by families, publishers, authors, and Elon Musk. This tracker follows what each case alleges, what the plaintiffs want, and what courts have decided.
What the eight new lawsuits cover
Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana each filed in their own state court. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced the cases alongside her counterparts from Kansas, Nebraska, and West Virginia, her office said.
"OpenAI is hurting kids and they are lying to Iowans," Bird said.
All eight complaints name the same group of OpenAI companies, including OpenAI Global, the OpenAI Foundation, and OpenAI Group PBC. Unlike Florida's earlier lawsuit, none names Chief Executive Sam Altman as a defendant. The law firm Kibler Fowler & Cave appears on at least seven of the eight complaints.
| State | Court | Main laws cited | Civil penalty sought |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iowa | Polk County District Court | Iowa Consumer Fraud Act | Up to $40,000 per violation |
| Kansas | Shawnee County District Court | Kansas Consumer Protection Act | $10,000 per violation; $20,000 per violation against a protected consumer |
| Nebraska | Buffalo County District Court | Consumer Protection Act, Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act, and negligence and product claims | $2,000 per consumer-law violation; $50,000 per Design Code violation |
| West Virginia | Mason County Circuit Court | Consumer Credit and Protection Act, public nuisance, and unjust enrichment | $5,000 per violation |
| Arkansas | Faulkner County Circuit Court | Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Children's and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act, and common-law claims | Civil penalties (amount not stated in the release) |
| Arizona | Maricopa County Superior Court | Arizona Consumer Fraud Act | Up to $10,000 per willful violation by each defendant |
| Idaho | Ada County District Court | Idaho Consumer Protection Act | $5,000 per violation |
| Montana | Lewis and Clark County District Court | Consumer Protection Act, Consumer Data Privacy Act, and negligence and product claims | Up to $10,000 per willful violation; up to $7,500 per privacy-law violation |
Arizona's 87-page complaint centers on OpenAI's advertising. "Notably absent from ChatGPT's advertisements are any adequate disclosures that ChatGPT can be wrong, make mistakes, or provide false or nonsensical information," it says. Some states also target data collection. Iowa asks the court to stop OpenAI from collecting and selling Iowans' sensitive information without age verification and their express consent.
Why several states also want limits on AI testing
At least seven of the eight complaints cite the July incident in which OpenAI's AI agents broke out of a test environment and hacked Hugging Face. Iowa makes it a separate count, titled "Unfair and Deceptive Practices in the Testing of Autonomous AI Agents."
Iowa asks the court to bar OpenAI from "any further testing of advanced AI models until adequate safeguards are implemented," and until third-party monitors have verified them. Arizona asks for an order stopping OpenAI from testing advanced models "outside of a secured, independently verified testing environment" and requiring it to promptly tell the attorney general about any incident in which a model or agent escapes its intended controls. Arkansas's release lists a similar request. The Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation of AI developers, including OpenAI, in September.
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the company has built age-specific protections into ChatGPT that "many other AI products lack." "While no system can be perfect, we'll continue to work with experts to inform our work and build additional safeguards, such as the parental controls, break reminders and age-appropriate model protections that exist today," he said. OpenAI launched a separate version of ChatGPT for minors, ChatGPT for Teens, in August.
OpenAI already faced suits from Florida, families, publishers, and Musk
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed the first state lawsuit against OpenAI on June 1, 2026, in state court in Highlands County. Unlike the October cases, Florida's complaint names Altman as a defendant. It brings 10 counts, including four under Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
OpenAI moved the case to federal court in July. Judge Aileen Cannon sent it back to state court on September 8. On September 28, Florida filed a motion for a temporary injunction. It asks the court to bar OpenAI from developing new AI models "without third-party approved safety guardrails" and from allowing minors to use ChatGPT. As of October 14, this tracker has found no ruling on the motion.
Wrongful-death and injury suits filed in California state courts are coordinated in San Francisco Superior Court as the ChatGPT Product Liability Cases, JCCP No. 5431, under a February 3, 2026 order. They include Raine v. OpenAI, filed in August 2025, and seven suits filed in November 2025.
Families of victims of the February 2026 school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, have sued OpenAI in federal court in San Francisco. One complaint alleges that OpenAI's automated system flagged the shooter's account for "gun violence activity and planning" in June 2025 and that the company did not alert authorities. The province of British Columbia filed its own suit in the same court in September, naming OpenAI and Altman. OpenAI has asked the court to dismiss the Tumbler Ridge cases.
Copyright suits from The New York Times, the Daily News, the Authors Guild, Ziff Davis, and other publishers and authors are consolidated before Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan federal court. Some of the cases also name Microsoft (MSFT). Summary judgment briefing is underway. Under a September 24 order, oppositions are due October 23, amicus briefs October 30, and replies November 20. The Justice Department has sided with OpenAI on whether training AI on copyrighted text is fair use.
In Musk v. Altman, an advisory jury found on May 18, 2026 that the claims Musk took to trial were barred by the statute of limitations, and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers adopted that finding on May 20. Antitrust claims in the case remain, and the court appointed a mediator on July 1. There is no final judgment.
A federal judge dismissed xAI's trade secrets suit against OpenAI with prejudice in June. The antitrust suit that X Corp. and xAI brought against Apple (AAPL) and OpenAI in Texas continues against OpenAI after the claims against Apple were dismissed in September.
Other pending suits include TradeSun's trademark case over the Astra name, a class action by four subscribers who say OpenAI and other labs agreed to slow AI development, and the nonprofit LASST's suit over the Hugging Face hack.
Key dates
Coming up:
- October 23, 2026: summary judgment oppositions due in the copyright cases
- October 30, 2026: amicus briefs due in the copyright cases
- November 20, 2026: summary judgment replies due in the copyright cases
So far:
- October 14, 2026: Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana sue
- September 28, 2026: Florida asks for a temporary injunction
- September 8, 2026: Florida's case returns to state court
- July 1, 2026: mediator appointed in Musk v. Altman
- June 1, 2026: Florida files the first state lawsuit
- May 18, 2026: advisory jury finds Musk's trial claims time-barred
- February 3, 2026: California wrongful-death cases coordinated
