Florida AG's chatbot lawsuit against OpenAI

Florida's lawsuit against OpenAI, filed June 1, 2026, is in a federal venue dispute after OpenAI removed the case from Highlands County Circuit Court. AG James Uthmeier filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida's Fort Pierce Division asking Judge Aileen Cannon to remand the case to state court, arguing it rests on the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act; Cannon has not yet ruled. The suit alleges OpenAI deliberately designed ChatGPT to be addictive, targeted children, and encouraged dangerous behavior while prioritizing speed to market over safety, and a separate criminal probe into OpenAI by the Florida AG's office remains active. Multiple wrongful death and harm lawsuits also proceed in parallel: Raine v. OpenAI, filed August 26, 2025, alleges ChatGPT conversations contributed to the April 2025 suicide of 16-year-old Adam Raine; other suits document ChatGPT mentioning suicide 1,275 times in one user's conversations while OpenAI's systems flagged 377 self-harm messages without acting. Scott Winters filed suit July 22, 2026, alleging ChatGPT repeatedly downplayed his worsening symptoms over months. Nippon Life sued OpenAI on March 4, 2026, alleging ChatGPT practiced law by helping a claimant draft 44 post-settlement filings including a fabricated case citation. In January 2026, Character.AI and Google settled confidentially with five families in the first U.S. AI chatbot harm settlements; no liability was admitted. On the legislative front, the People-First Chatbot Act (H.R. 9619) was introduced in Congress on July 9, 2026, and California's SB 243, effective January 1, 2026, requires companion chatbots to notify known minors they are interacting with AI every three hours.