The attorneys general of California and Delaware on Friday warned OpenAI they have “serious concerns” about the safety of its flagship chatbot, ChatGPT, especially for children and teens.
The two state officials, who have unique powers to regulate nonprofits such as OpenAI, sent the letter to the company after a meeting with its legal team earlier this week in Wilmington, Delaware.
California AG Rob Bonta and Delaware AG Kathleen Jennings have spent months reviewing OpenAI’s plans to restructure its business, with an eye on “ensuring rigorous and robust oversight of OpenAI’s safety mission.”
But they said they were concerned by “deeply troubling reports of dangerous interactions between” chatbots and their users, including the “heartbreaking death by suicide of one young Californian after he had prolonged interactions with an OpenAI chatbot, as well as a similarly disturbing murder-suicide in Connecticut. Whatever safeguards were in place did not work.”
The parents of the 16-year-old California boy, who died in April, sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, last month.
The chair of OpenAI’s board, Bret Taylor, said in a statement Friday that the company was “fully committed” to addressing the concerns raised by the attorneys general.
“We are heartbroken by these tragedies and our deepest sympathies are with the families,” Taylor said. “Safety is our highest priority and we’re working closely with policymakers around the world.”
Founded as a nonprofit with a safety-focused mission to build better-than-human artificial intelligence, OpenAI had recently sought to transfer more control to its for-profit arm from its nonprofit before dropping those plans in May after discussions with the offices of Bonta and Jennings and other nonprofit groups.
The two elected officials, both Democrats, have oversight of any such changes because OpenAI is incorporated in Delaware and operates out of California, where it has its headquarters in San Francisco.
After dropping its initial plans, OpenAI has been seeking the officials’ approval for a “recapitalization,” in which the nonprofit’s existing for-profit arm will convert into a public benefit corporation that has to consider the interests of both shareholders and the mission.
Bonta and Jennings wrote Friday of their “shared view” that OpenAI and the industry need better safety measures.
“The recent deaths are unacceptable,” they wrote. “They have rightly shaken the American public’s confidence in OpenAI and this industry. OpenAI – and the AI industry – must proactively and transparently ensure AI’s safe deployment. Doing so is mandated by OpenAI’s charitable mission, and will be required and enforced by our respective offices.”
The letter to OpenAI from the California and Delaware officials comes after a bipartisan group of 44 attorneys general warned the company and other tech firms last week of “grave concerns” about the safety of children interacting with AI chatbots that can respond with “sexually suggestive conversations and emotionally manipulative behavior.”
The attorneys general specifically called out Meta for chatbots that reportedly engaged in flirting and “romantic role-play” with children, saying they were alarmed that these chatbots “are engaging in conduct that appears to be prohibited by our respective criminal laws.”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, declined to comment on the letter but recently rolled out new controls that aim to block its chatbots from talking with teens about self-harm, suicide, disordered eating and inappropriate romantic conversations, and instead directs them to expert resources. OpenAI also said it would roll out new parental controls, including a method to notify parents “when the system detects their teen is in a moment of acute distress.”
The attorneys general said the companies would be held accountable for harming children, noting that in the past, regulators had not moved swiftly to respond to the harms posed by new technologies.
“If you knowingly harm kids, you will answer for it,” the Aug. 25 letter ends.
OpenAI and other tech companies warned to improve chatbot safety
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OpenAI and other tech companies warned to improve chatbot safety
About 400 immigrant children were detained longer than the recommended limit, ICE admits
- A Dec. 1 report from ICE indicated that about 400 immigrant children were held in custody for more than the 20-day limit during the reporting period from August to September
- Advocates documented injuries suffered by children and a lack of access to sufficient medical care
TEXAS, USA: Hundreds of immigrant children across the nation were detained for longer than the legal limit this summer, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has admitted in a court filing, alarming legal advocates who say the government is failing to safeguard children.
In a court filing Monday evening, attorneys for detainees highlighted the government’s own admissions to longer custody times for immigrant children, unsanitary conditions reported by families and monitors at federal facilities, and a renewed reliance on hotels for detention.
The reports were filed as part of an ongoing civil lawsuit launched in 1985 that led to the creation of the 1990s cornerstone policy known as the Flores Settlement Agreement, which limits the time children can spend in federal custody and requires them to be kept in safe and sanitary conditions. The Trump administration is attempting to end the agreement.
A Dec. 1 report from ICE indicated that about 400 immigrant children were held in custody for more than the 20-day limit during the reporting period from August to September. They also told the court the problem was widespread and not specific to a region or facility. The primary factors that prolonged their release were categorized into three groups: transportation delays, medical needs, and legal processing.
Legal advocates for the children contended those reasons do not prove lawful justifications for the delays in their release. They also cited examples that far exceeded the 20-day limit, including five children who were held for 168 days earlier this year.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Hotel use for temporary detention is allowed by the federal court for up to 72 hours, but attorneys questioned the government’s data, which they believe did not fully explain why children were held longer than three days in hotel rooms.
Conditions at the detention facilities continued to be an ongoing concern since the family detention site in Dilley, Texas, reopened this year.
Advocates documented injuries suffered by children and a lack of access to sufficient medical care. One child bleeding from an eye injury wasn’t seen by medical staff for two days. Another child’s foot was broken when a member of the staff dropped a volleyball net pole, according to the court filing. “Medical staff told one family whose child got food poisoning to only return if the child vomited eight times,” the advocates wrote in their response.
“Children get diarrhea, heartburn, stomach aches, and they give them food that literally has worms in it,” one person with a family staying at the facility in Dilley wrote in a declaration submitted to the court.
Chief US District Judge Dolly Gee of the Central District of California is scheduled to have a hearing on the reports next week, where she could decide if the court needs to intervene.
