Florida asks a court to halt OpenAI model development

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a motion for a temporary injunction against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, on 28 September 2026, in the circuit court of the 10th Judicial Circuit in Highlands County. The motion sits inside the lawsuit the state filed on 1 June 2026 over the design and marketing of ChatGPT.

According to the News Service of Florida, the state asks the court to stop OpenAI from developing new AI models without independent safety mechanisms in place, to keep Florida minors from using ChatGPT, to stop the product from soliciting engagement and presenting “human” attributes, and to bar the company from advertising ChatGPT as safe, accurate or reliable.

The motion itself could not be opened for this capsule; the relief sought is reported here as described by the News Service of Florida and Unite.AI, which agree on the court and the requests. No hearing date had been reported. OpenAI has previously argued in the case that its product answered questions rather than encouraging harmful behaviour.

The requests go beyond content moderation: they ask a state court to set conditions on how a frontier model may be developed, and to decide which Florida residents may use ChatGPT at all.