OpenAI faces investigation from state attorneys general

A coalition of attorneys general has opened an investigation into OpenAI.

The company was A subpoena was filed Friday by the New York attorney generalaccording to The Wall Street Journal. That subpoena sought documents related to a wide range of topics, including the company’s advertising, user engagement and retention, model sycophancy, processing of consumer and health data, and treatment of minors and seniors.

“AI is a new and powerful technology and we are working every day to safely deliver its benefits to people in a responsible way,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement. “We take the attorneys general’s concerns seriously and intend to work constructively with their offices.”

The spokesperson also said: “Today’s ChatGPT includes a more protective experience for minors and people in difficult situations, with safeguards that direct them to real-world resources and trusted human contacts. We believe that children should be treated like children, which is why we developed age predictions, released tools for parents to guide their children’s use of AI, and banned ads aimed at children.”

The company did not specify which states are involved in the investigation or share more details about what information was requested. TechCrunch has also reached out to the New York Attorney General’s office for confirmation.

OpenAI recently defeated its co-founder Elon Musk in a high-profile lawsuit after Musk accused the company of violating its founding agreement. (Musk’s lead attorney said he will appeal the decision.)

However, OpenAI continues to face lawsuits over everything from alleged copyright infringement to ChatGPT’s alleged role in user suicides. Earlier this month, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging that OpenAI and Altman “ignored internal and external safety warnings, placed children in grave danger and allowed a dangerous product to reach millions of Floridians.”

Altman recently apologized to the community of Tumbler Ridge, Canada following a mass shooting; he acknowledged that OpenAI failed to alert law enforcement after the company flagged and banned the suspected shooter’s ChatGPT account.

The company announced this week that it has filed confidentially to go public.

This post has been updated with a statement from an OpenAI spokesperson.