OpenAI’s Impact on Users Facing State AG Scrutiny

A group of state attorneys general has reportedly launched an investigation into OpenAI.

The artificial intelligence startup was served with a subpoena Friday (June 12) seeking information on an array of its activities and user impact, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

According to the report, that information covers things like advertising, user engagement and retention, handling of consumer and health data, activities related to children and senior citizens, deep learning models, and company policies. The subpoena was viewed by WSJ and issued by New York’s attorney general.

“AI is a new and powerful technology, and we work every day to safely bring its benefits to people in a responsible way,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement to WSJ.

“We take the concerns raised by state attorneys general seriously and intend to engage constructively with their offices.”

The investigation is part of a string of legal action facing OpenAI as it prepares to go public in what could be a trillion-dollar stock market listing.

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Earlier this month, Florida filed a civil lawsuit against the company and CEO Sam Altman, alleging that they endanger children and trick parents into believing that its ChatGPT chatbot is safe for use.

“It’s clearly not,” Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a video shared in a post on social media platform X.

“People are getting hurt, parents are getting deceived, and [OpenAI and Altman] need to pay for it. They need to pay for it by opening up their checkbook and changing the program to ensure that there are parental controls and that we are not endangering our kids.”

Uthmeier said ChatGPT can be addictive, mimics human characteristics to dupe users into providing it more information, and works quickly to help users perform any task, even if that task includes criminal conduct.

Reached by PYMNTS, an OpenAI spokesperson provided an emailed statement saying that the company is “committed to getting this right,” and that it believes minors need “significant protection, which is why we have put in place industry leading protections and policies.”

In other AI news, PYMNTS wrote last week about the divergence between consumer and enterprise AI pricing, and how it illustrates the fact that usage is increasing more quickly than the economics are improving.

“On the consumer side, companies are cutting prices to add subscribers while absorbing the cost of heavy users,” that report said. “On the enterprise side, companies that treated AI spend like flat-rate software are discovering it bills more like utilities.”

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