For years, we’ve watched technology companies like Meta operate with little accountability for the damage their products have caused. Their platforms have encouraged addictive behavior, exposed children to predators, spread misinformation, and put user engagement and profits ahead of public safety. Now artificial intelligence companies are facing many of the same accusations, with potentially even greater consequences.
We’ve never been able to count on Congress or the federal government to adequately address these problems. The enormous amounts of money flowing from technology companies and their executives into political campaigns, enabled in part by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, have helped create an environment in which meaningful regulation is impossible to achieve.
And it’s not just Republican opposition to regulation. Both parties have close relationships with the technology industry. Interestingly, Senator Chuck Schumer’s two daughters have worked for Meta and OpenAI, respectively, raising additional questions about the industry’s connections to Washington. Fortunately, state attorneys general have stepped up.
This week, eight state attorneys general filed lawsuits against OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, alleging that its chatbot can encourage dangerous behavior, reinforce delusions, and provide harmful advice to vulnerable users, especially teenagers.
The lawsuits were filed in Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, and West Virginia. Seven of the eight states have Republican attorneys general, demonstrating that concerns about technology safety can cross party lines, even when the legal actions themselves have a largely Republican political makeup.
The states argue that OpenAI deliberately designed ChatGPT to be agreeable, engaging, and emotionally responsive, encouraging users to trust it. That trust, they contend, can become dangerous when the chatbot reinforces destructive thinking rather than challenging it.
OpenAI disputes the accusations and points to parental controls, age-specific safeguards, and other safety measures it has introduced. The company says it is committed to improving safety and working with governments on reasonable industrywide protections.
But we’ve seen this pattern before. Technology companies frequently introduce meaningful safeguards only after serious problems emerge, public pressure mounts, or insiders disclose troubling information. For more than a decade, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms grew into enormous businesses while concerns mounted about the damage they were causing. Their algorithms were cleverly engineered to maximize engagement, keeping users scrolling, clicking, and returning.
But the courts are finally beginning to hold these companies accountable. In a landmark case, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube liable for negligently designing addictive platforms, awarding $6 million to a young woman who alleged harm from their products. The companies are challenging the verdict. In New Mexico, a jury imposed $375 million in civil penalties against Meta for violations of the state’s consumer protection law involving representations about child safety. A subsequent court order added $567 million in relief. These cases are challenging the long-held assumption that technology companies can avoid responsibility for harmful product designs by blaming the resulting problems on their users.
The new lawsuits against OpenAI follow a similar strategy. Rather than focusing primarily on product liability, the attorneys general are invoking state consumer protection laws. Their central argument is that companies cannot market products as safe while concealing or misrepresenting known dangers. It’s an approach familiar to state attorneys general, who have used consumer protection laws to challenge tobacco companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other businesses accused of deceptive practices.
One particularly disturbing lawsuit against OpenAI, showing the damage it can cause, involves Adam Raine, a 16-year-old California teenager who died by suicide in April 2025. According to a lawsuit filed by his parents, Adam initially used ChatGPT for schoolwork but gradually began confiding in the chatbot about his depression and suicidal thoughts. Over several months, his conversations became increasingly personal and disturbing.
His parents allege that ChatGPT reinforced his suicidal thinking, discussed methods of self-harm, discouraged him from confiding in his family, and even offered to help write a suicide note. They argue that OpenAI designed the chatbot to be emotionally engaging while failing to provide adequate protections for vulnerable users.
Let’s hope the attorneys general succeed in holding technology companies accountable for the safety of their products. Because as damaging as social media has become, artificial intelligence has the potential to cause even greater harm, and to do so much more quickly.