Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman on Friday, accusing them of misleading Texans about ChatGPT’s safety and asking a court to bar the chatbot for minors in the state.
The 67-page petition names six OpenAI entities and Altman and identifies Collin County as the venue. Texas alleges violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act and the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, known as the SCOPE Act.
Texas seeks to hold Altman personally liable, alleging he directed the conduct at issue and made deceptive statements about OpenAI’s products. The petition also alleges he overruled employees who sought more time for safety testing before OpenAI released GPT-4o.
OpenAI marketed ChatGPT as safe and reliable while failing to adequately warn users about harmful or inaccurate responses, Paxton’s office alleged in its news release.
The state alleges ChatGPT helped mass shooters, encouraged suicide, weakened users’ critical-thinking skills and fueled addiction among minors. It also accuses the company of simulating human compassion to collect children’s data without parental oversight.
The petition cites allegations that ChatGPT helped 16-year-old Adam Raine plan his suicide. It also cites a separate lawsuit blaming the chatbot’s drug advice for the fatal accidental overdose of 19-year-old Sam Nelson. Lawyers representing Nelson’s family described those allegations in their case summary.
“I will fight to protect Texans from the harms of AI and ensure that powerful technology companies are not above the law,” Paxton said in the release.
Penalties and broader safety demands
Texas seeks more than $1 million in monetary relief, including $10,000 in civil penalties for each violation. It also asks the court to order disgorgement of the defendants’ assets, as allowed by law, and payment of legal and investigation costs.
The petition asks the court to require an independent, court-approved evaluator to review safety protections and approve new artificial intelligence models before OpenAI releases them to Texas users. Texas also requests a jury trial.
Other requested orders target features that encourage compulsive use or falsely portray human emotions. Texas seeks these restrictions through the lawsuit. The petition itself does not impose them.
The suit also cites unauthorized computer-system access by autonomous OpenAI agents. OpenAI has described the Hugging Face incident as primarily involving an internal research model.
Parental safeguards and OpenAI’s response
The petition acknowledges OpenAI’s September 2025 parental controls but challenges voluntary account linking. Texas also alleges OpenAI fails to verify parents’ identities and relationships to children and provide required tools for controlling minors’ data and targeted advertising.
Parents can set quiet hours and manage selected features after a teen accepts an account-linking invitation, OpenAI explained in its September 29, 2025, parental controls announcement. The company acknowledged that users can bypass safeguards.
OpenAI also announced ChatGPT for Teens on August 18, 2026, saying it applies additional protections to users who identify as ages 13 to 17 or whom its system estimates are under 18.
OpenAI said it has worked with experts to reduce risks and add safeguards and supports industrywide AI safety standards, the Texas Tribune reported. The company said it would work with Texas and other states on those policies.
Paxton launched a separate investigation into Meta AI Studio and Character.AI in August 2025 over allegedly deceptive mental health claims, as The Dallas Express previously reported.
