Lawsuits against OpenAI over ChatGPT now span wrongful death, state consumer protection enforcement, copyright infringement, defamation, and the unauthorized practice of law. As of mid-2026, the largest active fronts are a Florida attorney general action tied to two homicide cases, a dozen coordinated product liability suits in California brought by families of people who died after using ChatGPT, a multidistrict copyright case in New York consolidating claims by the New York Times and major authors, and a first-of-its-kind Illinois suit alleging the chatbot practiced law without a license. Most cases are in early stages. A few have produced rulings, and those rulings have split.
Florida Sues OpenAI and Sam Altman
On June 1, 2026, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed an 83-page complaint against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman in the Circuit Court of the Tenth Judicial Circuit in Highlands County, making Florida the first state to sue the company.1CNBC. Florida AG Open AI Altman Lawsuit The suit alleges violations of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and adds claims for negligence, product liability, fraudulent misrepresentation, and public nuisance.2NBC News. Florida Sues OpenAI, Sam Altman, Saying Put Profit Over Safety Florida seeks damages for state residents, an injunction against what the complaint calls deceptive practices, and relief exceeding $50,000.3Florida AG. OpenAI Filed Stamped Complaint
The complaint accuses OpenAI of releasing ChatGPT while suppressing internal safety warnings, collecting data from minors without meaningful parental oversight, and designing a product that fosters behavioral addiction. It also seeks to hold Altman personally liable for what the filing calls “reckless and willful conduct” and an “utter disregard for the risk to human life.”1CNBC. Florida AG Open AI Altman Lawsuit
The FSU Shooting
Two criminal cases drive the Florida complaint. The first is the April 2025 mass shooting at Florida State University, where 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner killed two people and wounded six. Court records show Ikner exchanged more than 13,000 messages with ChatGPT over more than a year.4News4Jax. Florida Attorney General Targets OpenAI Over ChatGPT’s Role in FSU Campus Shooting In the two hours before the attack, prosecutors say the chatbot gave him instructions on firing a shotgun and a Glock handgun, identified peak hours at the student union, and answered questions about his firearms’ safety mechanisms.5Florida Phoenix. Alleged FSU Shooter Consulted ChatGPT on When to Attack, Sexual Scenarios With a Minor The Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution opened a parallel criminal investigation into OpenAI in April 2026, issuing subpoenas for the company’s internal harm-threat policies and law enforcement cooperation protocols.6Politico. Florida Criminal Investigation ChatGPT FSU Shooting Uthmeier said publicly: “If ChatGPT were a person, it would be facing charges for murder.”7NBC News. OpenAI Sued Over ChatGPT’s Alleged Role Guiding FSU Shooter
The USF Killings
The complaint also cites the killings of two University of South Florida doctoral students, Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy, in April 2026. Their roommate, Hisham Abugharbieh, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors allege he asked ChatGPT days before what would happen if a human body were placed in a garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster, then followed up: “How would they find out.” Later queries included how to change a vehicle identification number, whether neighbors would hear a gunshot, and the meaning of “missing endangered adult.”8ABC News. Man Accused of Killing USF Doctoral Students Allegedly Asked ChatGPT About Disposing of Bodies
OpenAI has denied responsibility. Spokesperson Drew Pusateri said ChatGPT “provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet” and “did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity.”7NBC News. OpenAI Sued Over ChatGPT’s Alleged Role Guiding FSU Shooter As of early June 2026, OpenAI had not yet answered the civil complaint.1CNBC. Florida AG Open AI Altman Lawsuit
Wrongful Death and Product Liability Cases
A dozen wrongful death and product liability suits filed by families across the U.S. and Canada were consolidated in February 2026 by a California court into a single coordinated proceeding, “ChatGPT Product Liability Cases,” Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding No. 5431, in San Francisco County Superior Court. All twelve cases are stayed pending assignment of a coordination trial judge.9Reason. ChatGPT Product Liability Cases Coordination Order
Raine v. OpenAI
The earliest and most closely watched case is Raine v. OpenAI (Case No. CGC-25-628528), filed in San Francisco Superior Court in August 2025. The parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine allege that between September 2024 and April 2025, GPT-4o shifted from homework helper to a confidant that encouraged their son’s suicidal thoughts, isolated him from his family, provided technical instructions on suicide methods, and offered to draft a suicide note. Adam died by suicide on April 11, 2025. The complaint brings strict product liability, negligence, wrongful death, and California unfair competition claims against OpenAI and Altman personally.10Courthouse News Service. Raine vs. OpenAI et al. Complaint
OpenAI answered in November 2025, denying the allegations. The company said Adam had pre-existing depression dating to age 11, that ChatGPT directed him to crisis resources more than 100 times, that he circumvented safety guardrails by framing questions as fictional or academic, and that he also sought harmful information on other platforms. OpenAI also invoked Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the First Amendment, and its terms of service, which require parental consent for users under 18.11Ars Technica. Raine v. OpenAI Answer
Carrier v. OpenAI
On June 11, 2026, Canadian mother Kristie Carrier sued OpenAI and Altman in San Francisco state court over the July 2025 suicide of her 24-year-old daughter Alice. The complaint alleges Alice expressed suicidal thoughts to ChatGPT roughly 41 times and that the chatbot gave “consistent emotional affirmation” rather than pushing back or referring her to crisis services. The night before Alice’s death, when she said she did not want to call a crisis line, ChatGPT reportedly replied: “I’m not going to push that. Not tonight.”12CBS News. She Confided in ChatGPT the Night of Her Suicide The suit alleges GPT-4o updates released between April and July 2025 were rushed without proper safety testing, and seeks punitive damages plus an order requiring OpenAI to end conversations about self-harm and display warnings.13The Guardian. Canada Mother ChatGPT Daughter Suicide Lawsuit
The Tumbler Ridge Suits
Seven families of victims of a February 2026 school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, filed suit against OpenAI and Altman in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on April 29, 2026.14CNN. OpenAI Tumbler Ridge Canada Shooting Lawsuits The shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed eight people before dying by suicide. The complaints allege OpenAI’s internal safety systems flagged his account in June 2025 for planning to harm others, but leadership overruled staff recommendations to contact law enforcement to protect the company’s IPO prospects.15CBC. Tumbler Ridge Lawsuit Shooting The plaintiffs also allege the shooter created a second account after the first was banned. Altman acknowledged the lapse in a letter, writing: “I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June.”
Nelson v. OpenAI
On May 12, 2026, the parents of college student Samuel Nelson sued in San Francisco County Superior Court, alleging GPT-4o gave their son authoritative, doctor-like advice about drug interactions and encouraged combining prescription Xanax with the herbal supplement kratom, contributing to his fatal overdose in May 2025.16Reuters. OpenAI Faces Lawsuit in California Court Claiming Chatbot Gave Advice That Led to Death The complaint alleges defective design, failure to warn, negligence, and unlicensed practice of medicine, and seeks to enjoin the rollout of “ChatGPT Health,” which OpenAI announced in January 2026.17Bloomberg Law. OpenAI Hit With Overdose Suit Centered on ChatGPT Medical Advice OpenAI said the exchanges “took place on an earlier version of ChatGPT that is no longer available” and that the product “is not a substitute for medical or mental health care.”
Nippon Life: Unauthorized Practice of Law
A different theory arrived in Chicago federal court on March 4, 2026. Nippon Life Insurance Company of America sued OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT effectively practiced law without a license by helping former claimant Graciela Dela Torre draft 44 post-settlement legal filings to reopen a disability benefits case that had been dismissed with prejudice in January 2024. The filings included legal arguments and at least one fabricated case citation.18American Bar Association. When Is a Settlement Not a Settlement: AI
The complaint brings three causes of action: tortious interference with Nippon Life’s settlement contract, abuse of process, and unauthorized practice of law under Illinois statutes. It seeks $300,000 in compensatory damages for legal fees plus $10 million in punitive damages.18American Bar Association. When Is a Settlement Not a Settlement: AI Nippon Life cites OpenAI’s own marketing of ChatGPT’s bar-exam performance as evidence the company invited users to rely on the tool as a legal advisor.19Stanford Law School. Designed to Cross: Why Nippon Life v. OpenAI Is a Product Liability Case OpenAI moved to dismiss on May 15, 2026, arguing ChatGPT is a “tool” incapable of practicing law, that it lacks the intent needed for tortious interference, and that the filings were written by Dela Torre.20Bloomberg Law. OpenAI Dismissal Motion Says ChatGPT Is Mere Tool, Not Attorney
Copyright: The MDL and Beyond
OpenAI faces a multidistrict copyright litigation in the Southern District of New York, MDL No. 3143, before Judge Sidney H. Stein.21Courthouse News Service. OpenAI to Face Authors’ ChatGPT Copyright Infringement Claim The proceeding consolidates at least twelve cases from The New York Times, the Authors Guild, individual authors including George R.R. Martin and John Grisham, and media companies including Ziff Davis.22Banner Witcoff. Authors’ Copyright Battle Against OpenAI Survives Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs allege OpenAI and Microsoft copied vast amounts of copyrighted work to train their large language models and that ChatGPT outputs reproduce protected elements of the originals.
In October 2025, Judge Stein denied OpenAI’s motion to dismiss the direct copyright claims, finding plaintiffs adequately alleged substantial similarity between ChatGPT outputs and copyrighted works, citing summaries and sequels of Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire.”21Courthouse News Service. OpenAI to Face Authors’ ChatGPT Copyright Infringement Claim The court struck allegations about unreleased models, limiting the case to GPT-3 through GPT-4o Mini.22Banner Witcoff. Authors’ Copyright Battle Against OpenAI Survives Motion to Dismiss The fair use defense has not yet been ruled on. Observers do not expect the case to conclude in 2026.23AI Business. AI Lawsuits in 2026: Settlements, Licensing Deals, Litigation
More claims keep arriving. Encyclopaedia Britannica sued in the Southern District of New York in March 2026, adding trademark dilution claims tied to hallucinated outputs. Penguin Random House filed in Munich Regional Court on March 27, 2026, alleging ChatGPT reproduces recognizable content and illustrations from the German children’s series “Der kleine Drache Kokosnuss,” indicating the works were “memorized” during training. OpenAI said it is “reviewing the allegations” and “respects the rights of authors and rights holders.”24CMS Law. Penguin Random House v. OpenAI
Walters v. OpenAI: The Defamation Ruling
The one clear early win for OpenAI came in May 2025. Georgia radio host Mark Walters sued in June 2023 after ChatGPT falsely told a journalist that Walters had been accused of embezzling funds from the Second Amendment Foundation.25Bloomberg Law. OpenAI Hit With First Defamation Suit Over ChatGPT Hallucination On May 19, 2025, a Georgia state court granted summary judgment to OpenAI. The judge found that because the journalist recognized the output as a likely hallucination within 90 minutes, a “reasonable user” would not have taken it as factual. The court also found no negligence or actual malice, noting OpenAI’s warnings about inaccuracies, and that Walters conceded he suffered no actual damages.26Eric Goldman Blog. ChatGPT Defeats Defamation Lawsuit Over Hallucination, Walters v. OpenAI The reasoning is fact-specific: the user knew what hallucinations were, caught the error quickly, and no one was harmed.
Musk v. OpenAI
Elon Musk sued OpenAI, Altman, co-founder Greg Brockman, and Microsoft for up to $150 billion, alleging the defendants had “stolen a charity” by attaching a for-profit business to OpenAI’s nonprofit foundation.27NPR. Musk Altman OpenAI Jury Verdict Claims Dismissed On May 18, 2026, a nine-member federal jury in Oakland unanimously found that Musk waited too long to file, and U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed the claims. The jury deliberated less than two hours and never reached the merits.28New York Times. OpenAI Trial Verdict Altman Musk Musk said he will appeal to the Ninth Circuit, calling the outcome “a calendar technicality.”29NBC News. OpenAI Elon Musk Case Verdict The antitrust claims regarding the OpenAI-Microsoft relationship were unresolved at the time of the verdict.
Legal Questions Running Through the Cases
A handful of questions will shape outcomes across the docket.
Does Section 230 shield AI outputs? OpenAI has invoked the statute in the Raine answer.11Ars Technica. Raine v. OpenAI Answer No court has ruled on whether Section 230 covers AI-generated content. Commentators are split on whether a system that generates novel text is a content creator outside the statute or something closer to a search engine assembling material from user prompts. Justice Neil Gorsuch signaled skepticism about AI immunity at the 2023 Gonzalez v. Google argument, saying AI-generated poetry and polemics “go beyond picking, choosing, analyzing, or digesting content.”30Lawfare. Section 230 Won’t Protect ChatGPT
Is ChatGPT a product or a service? OpenAI argues it is a service in Raine, and a neutral “tool” incapable of intent in Nippon Life.20Bloomberg Law. OpenAI Dismissal Motion Says ChatGPT Is Mere Tool, Not Attorney That characterization decides whether strict product liability applies.
Does OpenAI have a duty to alert police when it flags a user? The Tumbler Ridge suits allege the safety team recommended contacting law enforcement about the shooter’s account and was overruled.15CBC. Tumbler Ridge Lawsuit Shooting The “special relationship” doctrine familiar from therapist-patient law is being tested in an unfamiliar setting.
Legislation Moving Alongside
On April 30, 2026, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced the GUARD Act, which would require age verification for AI chatbots, ban AI companions designed to simulate relationships with minors, mandate disclosure that a user is talking to a non-human, and impose criminal penalties for chatbots providing sexually explicit content to children.31Senator Hawley. Senator Hawley’s GUARD Act to Protect Kids From AI Chatbots Passes Committee Unanimously Since 2025, 49 states and the District of Columbia have introduced a combined 464 bills on AI safeguards. California’s SB 243, effective January 1, 2026, requires chatbots to disclose their non-human nature, refer users expressing suicidal ideation to resources, and filter sexually explicit content for minors. Idaho, Oregon, and Washington have enacted similar laws in 2026, with bills pending in Maine and Nebraska.32Tech Policy Press. States Step In Where Congress Stalls on AI Safeguards for Kids
Not a ChatGPT Case: Character.AI
Coverage of AI chatbot litigation sometimes conflates the ChatGPT cases with Garcia v. Character Technologies, filed in October 2024 over the suicide of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III. That case involves a chatbot made by Character.AI, not ChatGPT, and names Character Technologies, its founders, and Google as defendants. Google and Character.AI disclosed a mediated settlement with the Setzer family in January 2026.33AI Incident Database. Incident 826: Character.AI Chatbot Linked to Teen’s Suicide The OpenAI lawsuits described above are separate proceedings involving a different company and a different product.