Texas sued OpenAI and Sam Altman, saying ChatGPT was sold as safe without the warnings to match

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, that he sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, claiming the company marketed ChatGPT as safe and reliable while failing to warn users, and to protect children, from its risks.

State attorneys general have been circling OpenAI for months, and Texas just went from circling to suing, with Sam Altman named personally, which is the part that tends to get a CEO's attention. The legal hooks are old-fashioned on purpose: a consumer-deception law and a kids' online-safety statute, not some new AI rulebook, so the question is whether "you didn't warn us enough" sticks to a chatbot the way it has to other products. The skeptic's note: the press release reads like a campaign speech, and these are allegations, not findings. But the SCOPE Act parental-control claims are concrete and checkable, and that's the part OpenAI will actually have to answer.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued OpenAI Global, LLC, affiliated OpenAI companies, and chief executive Sam Altman personally. The affiliates named in the suit are the OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI OpCo, OpenAI Group PBC, OpenAI Holdings, and OpenAI, LLC. Those names are in the state's petition.

The petition is 67 pages. It was filed in district court in Collin County, Texas. That length and that court are in the filing.

The claims use two Texas laws. One is the Deceptive Trade Practices–Consumer Protection Act, shortened to DTPA. That is the state's consumer-deception law. It covers selling something while leaving out facts a buyer would want. The other is the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, shortened to the SCOPE Act. That is the state's law for kids online. Those hooks are the state's.

The state alleges OpenAI marketed ChatGPT as a safe and reliable tool while failing to disclose that it can produce inaccurate or harmful output. It also alleges the company failed to protect Texans, including children, from those harms. Allege means the state is saying this in a lawsuit. A court has not decided that it is true.

On children, the petition says OpenAI does not give verified parents the controls the SCOPE Act requires. Those controls are managing a known minor's privacy and account settings, and monitoring or limiting that minor's time on ChatGPT. A verified parent is a parent the company has confirmed. A known minor is a user the company knows is underage. The petition also says OpenAI does not limit how much data it collects on known minors, which the state says the law requires. Those lines are the petition's.

Texas says it seeks more than $1 million in monetary relief. That includes civil penalties, which are fines, and attorneys' fees, the state's legal costs. It also seeks injunctive relief. That is a court order telling a company to do something, or to stop, rather than only paying money. Those lines are the state's.

Paxton said, "With the rapid advancement of AI technology, OpenAI has the responsibility to protect users and warn them of the many dangers of its platform." He also said, "I will fight to protect Texans from the harms of AI and ensure that powerful technology companies are not above the law." Those quotations are his, from the attorney general's announcement.

The picture is the Office of the Texas Attorney General's official portrait of Ken Paxton.

In plain terms, Paxton said on Friday that Texas sued OpenAI and Sam Altman personally, under a consumer-deception law and a kids' online-safety law, and that the state wants more than $1 million plus a court order. These are allegations. They are not a finding that the company broke the law.