Florida Seeks Court Ruling To Officially Classify Sam Altman And ChatGPT As A 'Public Nuisance' — OpenAI Fights To Keep Lawsuit Away From A State Jury
OpenAI's brief cites three cases in which states sued platforms under state law, defendants removed, and federal judges sent them back: New Mexico v. Meta, California v. TikTok, and New Jersey v. Discord. OpenAI cites them only to show the judges declined to award fees because removal wasn't "objectively unreasonable." Florida's remand motion asks for fees regardless, arguing OpenAI removed for one reason: "delay."
The complaint's remaining counts cover negligence, gross negligence, strict liability for design defect and failure to warn, fraudulent misrepresentation, and public nuisance. It alleges ChatGPT's memory feature was on by default, the free tier has no age gate, the September 2025 parental controls require a voluntary account link, and GPT-4o's safety evaluation was compressed to one week to beat a Google launch.
The State seeks a permanent injunction on under-13 data collection and a finding that distributing ChatGPT in Florida is a public nuisance, demanding civil penalties of up to $10,000 per willful violation, which is double New Mexico's $5,000 cap. New Mexico's jury found 75,000 violations.
A footnote in every federal filing states that Altman "is not making a general appearance" and reserves a personal-jurisdiction defense. That defense sets up a motion to dismiss the CEO individually, no matter which court hears the case. Much of the record that Florida's case relies on is against Altman, including Greg Brockman's diary and Tasha McCauley's testimony about a "toxic culture of lying," which came out at the Musk v. Altman trial in May. A coalition of 42 state attorneys general subpoenaed OpenAI in June; none has filed a complaint yet.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Frosty Piss on Wednesday August 26, @09:00PM (5 children)
Possibly the only time in recent history that I have agreed with Florida. Also, are we sure that Sam Altman himself is not aa AI driven hologram?
(Score: 4, Touché) by aafcac on Wednesday August 26, @11:10PM (1 child)
That was my thought, what's the catch?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Common Joe on Thursday August 27, @03:35AM
That it's only OpenAI.
(Score: 3, Flamebait) by JoeMerchant on Thursday August 27, @12:39AM (2 children)
Yeah, the blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while, but, being FloriDuh this has to be the lamest bandwagon hopping of recent memory - right up there with MAGAts hopping on the "Oh, Dolly, we LOVED you so much" theme of the day.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27, @05:48AM (1 child)
I'm pretty sure YOU are an AI Bot, and rather than actually engaging here, you and VGA play duel player DOOM while eating Cheetos, drinking way too much Dew, as evidence you are AKWAYS here, like an unwanted BOT.
(Score: 4, Informative) by janrinok on Thursday August 27, @01:15PM
I disagree. Its true that Joe often has something to say regardless of the topic, but more often than not it is worth saying.
I don't believe that Joe is a bot. How would a bot consume Cheetos or drink Dew?
He isn't here any more often than you are... How often are you engaging in a discussion as opposed to posting a short comment?