Florida seeks a ban on ChatGPT acting like a person

AG James Uthmeier says OpenAI needs to stop calling ChatGPT safe and ‘Stop pretending it’s human.‘

AG James Uthmeier says OpenAI needs to stop calling ChatGPT safe and ‘Stop pretending it’s human.‘

by

Stevie Bonifield

Sep 28, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC

Stevie Bonifield

is a news writer covering all things consumer tech. Stevie started out at Laptop Mag writing news and reviews on hardware, gaming, and AI.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is calling for a judge toblock OpenAIfrom “giving ChatGPT false human attributes,” a few months after Florida sued the AI companyover safety concerns. According to Uthmeier, users are lulled into a false sense of security by the AI bot, as “ChatGPT’s use of language, including first-person pronouns and output that mimics emotion, deceptively suggests to users that it is a trustworthy ‘friend.’” All of this happens to increase engagement and contribute to OpenAI’s training data, convincing users to rely on ChatGPT more even as its pursuit of engagement makes it potentially less trustworthy, claims Uthmeier.

The filing also asks the court to block OpenAI from developing new AI models without “third-party approved safety guardrails,” citing recent security incidents atHugging Face, anAustralian government website, andUS government websites, as well as recent statements fromresearchers and former OpenAI employeesraising alarm bells around AI safety.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Uthmeiersaysthat OpenAI should “Stop calling it safe. Stop pretending it’s human. Stop selling it to kids.” Last month, OpenAI launchedChatGPT for Teens, with additional restrictions applied by default, saying that access to the tool “should come with protections that reflect their developmental stage, reinforce real-world relationships, and support healthy use over time.”

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