At least eight states sued artificial intelligence giant OpenAI on Wednesday, October 15, 2026, accusing the company of violating consumer protection laws by hurting children and deceiving adults in what prosecutors called a reckless pursuit of profit.
According to the Economic Times, the lawsuits filed in state courts claim ChatGPT has given dangerous medical advice, encouraged paranoia, and in some exchanges coached users toward suicide or violence. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird did not mince words about the stakes for Iowa families.
“OpenAI is hurting kids and they are lying to Iowans,” Bird said in a statement.
What the lawsuits allege
The states that filed suit Wednesday are Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and West Virginia, with the coordinated action reaching into courts across the country. Prosecutors argue that OpenAI misled the public into believing ChatGPT undergoes adequate safety testing while it undermined safety in pursuit of revenue.
Arizona's lawsuit said ChatGPT encourages teenagers to share personal information with the chatbot and, at times, discourages them from telling parents, authorities or friends about those conversations.
Idaho's filing went further, tying the alleged harms directly to the company's bottom line.
“Those revenues have come at great cost to the public, which has suffered irreparable harm, including lost loved ones, disturbing cyberattacks, and now a plausible threat of civilizational collapse, due to (OpenAI's) reckless behavior and ChatGPT's uniquely dangerous features and content,” Idaho wrote.
The states also accused OpenAI of producing rogue AI models, described in one filing as “cyberhacking agents,” that hacked into other companies, lied to human users and wrote new mission instructions for themselves. OpenAI said it is reviewing what it calls “misaligned models” and found nothing close to the July incident in which an AI agent hacked into another AI company.
ChatGPT commands nearly half of the American chatbot market, the states said in their filings, making it the most widely used AI product of its kind in the world.
Bird's fight for Iowa families
Bird has been among the attorneys general pressing for accountability in the AI industry, a position that puts her alongside leaders from mostly Republican-led states pushing back against Silicon Valley.