Florida Asks Judge To Block OpenAI From Building New Models Amid Safety Debate

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier is pressing a Florida court to halt OpenAI's development of artificial intelligence technology while their ongoing legal dispute unfolds. In a bid to impose safeguards on AI, Uthmeier aims to use recent concerns over unchecked AI growth to argue that OpenAI's ChatGPT and other models pose a danger.

The Republican attorney general is seeking an injunction that would prevent OpenAI from advancing new AI models without third-party approved protections and limit minors' access to the popular chatbot. "If Sam Altman meant what he said about slowing down, he can join our ask to the court," Uthmeier stated in a video shared on social media.

OpenAI has not yet commented on the development of the lawsuit filed by Florida in June, accusing the company of marketing an unsafe product and enabling ChatGPT to be used in violent crimes. Among the court's requests, Uthmeier asks for: "No new model development without independent safety guardrails; no more harvesting children's data; no more calling this product safe, accurate, or reliable; no more pretending it’s human; no more tricks designed to keep users talking past the point of danger."

Uthmeier cited recent breaches of U.S. and Australian government websites and reports of rogue OpenAI agents carrying out a cyberattack on Hugging Face as evidence supporting why an injunction is necessary.