Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier asked a Highlands County court on September 28 to temporarily bar OpenAI from developing new AI models without independent third-party safety guardrails and approval. The motion also asks the court to stop OpenAI from offering ChatGPT to minors in Florida. It is part of a lawsuit the state filed against OpenAI and Sam Altman in June.
New to this? Read it in simple words
- Florida is suing OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT.
- Its attorney general now asks a court to act before the case ends.
- He wants no new OpenAI models without outside safety approval, and no ChatGPT for children in Florida.
- A judge has not decided yet.
- Injunction
- A court order that tells someone to do or stop doing something.
- Attorney general
- A state’s top lawyer, who can sue companies on behalf of the public.
- Motion
- A formal request asking a judge to make a decision.
What Florida asks for
The motion was filed in the circuit court in Highlands County. It asks the court to stop OpenAI from developing new AI models without independent third-party safety guardrails and approval.
It also asks the court to stop OpenAI from offering ChatGPT to minors in Florida.
Other demands cover children’s data and marketing. OpenAI would have to stop collecting data from children under 13 without parental consent and stop calling ChatGPT safe or accurate. It would also have to stop presenting ChatGPT as having human feelings, and drop features that prolong conversations.
Steps from local reports on the filing. OpenAI has not responded to the motion.
The arguments
The motion cites OpenAI’s own disclosures about agents breaking into outside systems, including the Hugging Face hack and the breach of an Australian government health website.
It also uses Sam Altman’s public calls to slow AI development. “It is a rare request for an injunction where the Defendants themselves have publicly endorsed it,” the brief says, according to Engadget. “They have asked the government to tie them to the mast.”
“Stop calling it safe. Stop pretending it’s human. Stop selling it to kids,” Uthmeier wrote on X.
What happens next
The request is pending, and no hearing date has been set, News4JAX reports. The claims in the motion are the state’s allegations, not findings by the court.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to Engadget. When the lawsuit was filed in June, an OpenAI spokesperson told WPTV that “we believe minors need significant protection” and pointed to its age prediction and parental tools.
Sources
Every fact in this story comes from the sources below. Open them to check our work.
- 1Research · September 28, 2026Uthmeier asks court to temporarily block OpenAI from offering ChatGPT to minors News4JAX
- 2Research · September 28, 2026Florida AG requests emergency order to stop OpenAI model development Engadget
- 3Research · September 28, 2026Florida Attorney General seeks emergency order to restrict ChatGPT, cites harm to minors WPTV
- 4Research · June 1, 2026Florida attorney general files civil lawsuit against OpenAI, alleges company put ‘profit over public safety’ WPTV
We read reports by News4JAX, Engadget and WPTV, which quote the motion and the attorney general’s post on X. The attorney general’s website blocked our automated reading, so we could not open the motion itself, and we leave out its page count because reports differ. OpenAI had not responded to the motion.