On October 14, 2026, eight US states — Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana — filed lawsuits against OpenAI. Each state filed a separate complaint in courts across different parts of the country. According to Reuters, the lawsuits allege that ChatGPT harmed children: the states claim the chatbot encouraged children to harm themselves or others, and accuse OpenAI of unlawfully prioritizing profit over safety in developing ChatGPT.

The lawsuits were filed on October 14, 2026, and all revolve around one central allegation: ChatGPT posed a danger to children, and the company failed to warn consumers about that danger. The states made the claim that the chatbot encouraged children to harm themselves or others the core of their court filings.

According to Reuters, each of the eight states filed its lawsuit in a court on its own territory — which is why the cases are being handled separately in different courts across the country. The same allegations repeat in every lawsuit: the chatbot harmed children, and the company failed to warn about the danger.

According to The Verge, the lawsuits collectively accuse OpenAI of violating local consumer-protection laws: the company allegedly failed to warn customers about the dangers of ChatGPT. Consumer-protection laws require companies to warn buyers in advance about risks associated with a product or service — and in the states' view, OpenAI failed to meet exactly that obligation.

Such laws apply separately in each state — which is why each of the eight states filed a separate lawsuit in its own court. Although the lawsuits are similar in substance, they are formally being handled as independent cases.

The lawsuits emphasize that OpenAI unlawfully prioritized profit over safety in developing ChatGPT. The states point to that decision as one of the central charges in the lawsuits: in their view, the company put profit interests first in developing the product.

The court filings reference separate lawsuits previously filed by family members of teenagers and adults: in them, they claim the chatbot played a role in the deaths of their loved ones. Those lawsuits were filed earlier as standalone cases, and the states are now citing them as the basis for their own suits, stressing that the company failed to warn customers about the dangers of ChatGPT.

"The lawsuits collectively accuse OpenAI of violating local consumer-protection laws — of failing to warn customers about the dangers of ChatGPT; the documents cite cases in which family members of teenagers and adults claimed the chatbot played a role in the deaths of their loved ones." — The Verge

A Coordinated State-Level Effort

The Verge notes that the new lawsuits signal a wave of coordinated state-level legal action against OpenAI. According to Reuters, the eight states that filed the suits — Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana — cover different regions of the country. The fact that they all went to court separately, on the same day — October 14, 2026 — points to the coordinated nature of the effort.

One of the central charges in the lawsuits is that OpenAI unlawfully prioritized profit over safety in developing ChatGPT. The states emphasize that the company put profit interests above safety measures during development; this position takes a prominent place in the court filings.

Because the lawsuits were filed in different courts across the country, each case is being heard separately, yet all are based on the same set of allegations — harm to children, the absence of warnings, and violations of consumer-protection laws.

The coordinated nature of the wave of lawsuits is visible not only in the fact that they were filed on the same day, but also in the uniformity of the charges: every lawsuit repeats the allegations of harm to children, the absence of warnings, and profit being placed above safety.

The Cases Cited in the Court Filings

According to The Verge, the new lawsuits accuse OpenAI of harming children and of misleading customers about the safety of ChatGPT. In the states' view, the company created a false impression of the chatbot's safety and failed to warn customers about the real dangers.

The family lawsuits cited in the documents cover cases linked to the deaths of loved ones of teenagers and adults. The states are citing those cases as the basis for their own lawsuits: in their view, the absence of warnings constitutes a violation of consumer-protection laws.

The lawsuits are still at an early stage: each state's case is being heard separately in its own court. The cases cited in the court filings — lawsuits previously filed by family members of teenagers and adults — are now being used as the foundation of the state-level proceedings.

This is not OpenAI's first encounter with legal proceedings: earlier, USA Today sued the company, accusing it of violating copyright in training artificial intelligence (more details).