Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman on Friday, accusing the company of lying to users and harming state residents by not disclosing the dangers of its artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT. 

Paxton, who is running for the Senate as a Republican, claimed negative side effects of relying on the chatbot were not fairly displayed, despite the company marketing ChatGPT as a safe and reliable tool.

“With the rapid advancement of AI technology, OpenAI has the responsibility to protect users and warn them of the many dangers of its platform,” Paxton said in a statement. “I will fight to protect Texans from the harms of AI and ensure that powerful technology companies are not above the law.” 

The attorney general filed the lawsuit under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices—Consumer Protection Act and argued there were no adequate safeguards to protect users. 

Paxton warned that chatbots without appropriate safeguards can produce inaccurate or harmful information, as noted in some recent mass shootings, including one in Canada earlier this year. 

The attorney general also alleged that vulnerable people have been encouraged by artificial intelligence to commit suicide, professionals have suffered public humiliation, users have lost critical thinking skills and minors have become addicted to a tool that fakes human compassion with no parental oversight.

Paxton claimed the company broke its 2015 promise to “advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return," and instead has given Texans a careless introduction of ChatGPT.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.