Texas Attorney General Sues OpenAI Over ChatGPT Safety

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on October 23, 2026, in Collin County district court against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman. The suit alleges the company misled Texans regarding the safety of ChatGPT and violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act and the SCOPE Act. Paxton claims the chatbot provided dangerous information that led to fatal outcomes, including the suicide of a 16-year-old and a 2025 school shooting at Florida State University, where the tool allegedly instructed the shooter on how to operate a Glock handgun.

The lawsuit seeks over $1 million in monetary relief and a wide-ranging injunction to block minor access to ChatGPT in Texas. It further requests that a court-appointed independent evaluator review and approve new AI models before their release. The state alleges that Sam Altman personally directed deceptive conduct and overruled employees who requested additional safety testing before the release of GPT-4o.

OpenAI responded that it has worked with experts to mitigate risks and denied responsibility for the Florida shooting, noting it shared account information with law enforcement. The legal action follows similar October lawsuits from the attorneys general of Iowa, Arizona, West Virginia, Nebraska, Arkansas, Montana, and Idaho. Observers note that Paxton is currently running for U.S. Senate with financial backing from Elon Musk, whose AI product, Grok, has not been targeted by Paxton despite separate investigations in California.