Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman on Friday 23 October 2026, accusing the company of deceiving consumers about ChatGPT's safety and failing to protect Texans, children among them. The case was filed in Collin County district court under the state's Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, with OpenAI Global, LLC, as the named defendant.
The complaint blames ChatGPT for help given to mass shooters, vulnerable people pushed toward suicide, professionals publicly humiliated, a loss of critical thinking, and minors hooked on a tool that fakes compassion while collecting data without parental oversight. It opens with a 2015 remark attributed to Altman that AI would probably end the world but make great companies first, and stresses that OpenAI began as a nonprofit promising to benefit humanity before pursuing growth.
OpenAI branding shown on a screen, used as stock art for the lawsuit report
Image: Fox 7 Austin
Texas seeks civil penalties and an injunction that would block minors from the product and require a court-appointed evaluator to approve new models. Outside counsel include Ashley Keller and Tony Buzbee, who defended Paxton in his 2023 impeachment. OpenAI says it has worked with experts on safeguards, welcomes government standards and wants rules covering the whole industry, citing input from over 170 mental health experts, crisis hotline links, break reminders and teen parental controls.
About OpenAI
OpenAI was founded in December 2015 as the nonprofit OpenAI, Inc. by Elon Musk, Sam Altman and others; Musk resigned as co-chair in 2018.
Its handling of consumer safety has been challenged before. In July 2023 the Federal Trade Commission issued a civil investigative demand into whether its data security and privacy practices for ChatGPT were unfair or harmed consumers. In August 2025 the parents of a 16-year-old who died by suicide sued OpenAI and Altman in Raine v. OpenAI, alleging that ChatGPT conversations contributed and that safeguards for minors were inadequate. In November 2025 the Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project filed seven more lawsuits against OpenAI.
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The suit follows Paxton's actions against Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and Roblox over child protections. He is running for U.S. Senate, and Elon Musk is his largest donor at nearly $200 million. Musk left OpenAI in 2018, founded xAI and in 2024 sued OpenAI and Altman for $1.5 billion, a case a federal judge threw out. No hearing date has been reported.