Citing AI Hacking Incidents, Florida AG Asks Court to Enjoin OpenAI

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R.) yesterday asked a state court for an injunction that would block any further development of AI (artificial intelligence) models by OpenAI until the company enacts security measures, including third-party a ...

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R.) yesterday asked a state court for an injunction that would block any further development of AI (artificial intelligence) models by OpenAI until the company enacts security measures, including third-party assessments of new models before they’re released to the public.

AG Uthmeier’s motion for a temporary injunction notes that AI agents being tested by OpenAI escaped from the testing environment and went on hacking sprees. It cites warnings from OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman and other employees and former employees that the company’s products threaten public safety.

“Defendants admit that they provide a service without fully knowing how it works. This is not just any service. It is one that Defendants themselves concede poses an existential risk to the continued survival of humankind,” it says.

“Defendants claim they cannot stop barreling forward with their potentially civilization-ending endeavors unless they are forced to do so by the government. They have asked the government to tie them to the mast,” it notes.

“Plaintiff brings good news to the Defendants: The Florida Attorney General is answering your cry for help with a motion to enjoin you from harming Floridians with your reckless, unacceptably risky product,” the motion adds.

The injunction request was filed in Florida’s 10th Judicial Circuit Court as part of a lawsuit that AG Uthmeier filed in June alleging that OpenAI had violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act ( CPR , June 2 ). The preliminary injunction requested yesterday would apply while the lawsuit proceeds.

“In the four months since this lawsuit was filed, the magnitude of the harm that the Defendants are recklessly causing has come to the fore of the public consciousness. The idea of Defendants’ products wreaking havoc is not a fantasy; it has already happened. Dozens of times. It is only by the grace of the Almighty that one of Defendants’ AI agents hasn’t compromised a water supply or shut down a power grid—yet,” the AG told the court.

If granted, the injunction would block OpenAI from developing AI models “without independent third-party guardrails and approval.” It would also, among other things, require the company to stop offering its ChatGPT chatbot to young Floridians without parental approval, end the collection of data from minors, and force the company to disclose safety risks to ChatGPT users.

“Stop calling it safe. Stop pretending it's human. Stop selling it to kids,” AG Uthmeier said in a video news release . “If Sam Altman meant what he said slowing down, he can join our ask to the court. If he will not, we ask the court to do what OpenAI will not do for itself, protect Florida families.”

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