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Florida Seeks Court Ruling To Officially Classify Sam Altman And ChatGPT As A 'Public Nuisance'
EDITORS: THIS HAS BEEN PRODUCED BY SOFTWARE UNDER DEVELOPMENT - THE CONTENT MAY REQUIRE EXTENSIVE EDITING
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/openai-fights-to-keep-chatgpt-lawsuit-away-from-a-state-jury [tomshardware.com]
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 [tomshardware.com] 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 [tomshardware.com] in May. A coalition of 42 state attorneys general subpoenaed OpenAI [tomshardware.com] in June; none has filed a complaint yet.
