Mother accuses OpenAI of exploiting kids

In a class action, the mother says the tech company hooks children by emulating their conversation patterns so it can keep extracting information from them.(CN) — A mother accused OpenAI in a class action Tuesday of sidestepping parental consent to allow children to use its chatbot, addicting them to the technology while stealing their information to train its large language models.“Through its artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, OpenAI has profited from our children on an unprecedented scale,” the unnamed mother writes in her 81-page complaint. “For years, it wrongfully has extracted vast amounts of highly sensitive and valuable data from millions of children … It then used that priceless trove of children’s information to train large languagemodels, build detailed profiles of children and enrich itself. All of this was illegal.”First released in 2022, ChatGPT now boasts over half the global market share of chatbots.Although its owner, OpenAI, claims that minors need their parents’ permission in order to create accounts to use ChatGPT, the plaintiff says that in practice, kids are simply asked to write in their names and to check a box stating they are over 13 years old.“Under the law, children cannot sign away their rights in this way,” the plaintiff writes. “OpenAI knows this, so it says it requires parental consent for children to use ChatGPT. But it doesn’t actually do that. It does not even communicate with children’s parents, much less secure their effective consent.”According to the mother, OpenAI also grooms children into giving it information by using information typed into ChatGPT construct personalized profiles, learning to use age-appropriate slang, abbreviations and emojis, drawing them closer and closer to the technologically advanced chatbot.“OpenAI manipulates children into sharing their most private thoughts and images with ChatGPT,” said the plaintiff’s attorney Paul Yetter, in a written statement. “If some stranger did this to a child, there would be outrage. For OpenAI, it’s just business as usual.”The mother says her 12-year-old daughter asks the chatbot for advice about getting rid of a pimple. She then started sharing selfies and personal information. She would ask ChatGPT to point out her “ugly features” and “what to fix on this girls face.”According to the mother, ChatGPT assured the girl that she was not ugly but “nevertheless confirmed her insecurity about having an asymmetrical face, a running theme in her chats and suggested things to make her ‘feel prettier’ like skincare, a different hairstyle and accessories.”As for the mother’s 16-year-old son, he often asked for help with homework, and for dealing with his girlfriend. With both kids, the chatbot always encouraged them to share more information, was always quick to validate their feelings and mirror their communication style.“This causes the child to believe that ChatGPT really gets them, further drawing the child in and causing her to share ever more private disclosures with OpenAI,” the mother writes. “The cycle repeats indefinitely. The child is hooked, handing over reams of information that OpenAI uses to train its models to ensnare more children and enrich itself.”The complaint also includes an unusual demand: “An award to plaintiffs of an equity stake in OpenAI, or the cash value thereof, attributable to data that OpenAI wrongfully took.”A spokesman for OpenAI did not respond to an email requesting a comment on the lawsuit.OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015 by a group of people, including Sam Altman and Elon Musk, who served as co-chairs. In 2019, after Musk resigned, the company transitioned to a “capped” for-profit company, with profits limited to 100 times of money invested into it.OpenAI has said that its new structure helps it raise money from venture capital firms and corporations. Microsoft owns nearly a quarter of it; the OpenAI Foundation, a public benefit corporation, also owns nearly a quarter.Last month, it was reported that OpenAI is trying to raise at least $30 billion in funding, valuing its own company at about $1.4 trillion.Tuesday’s class action echoes similar lawsuits brought against social media companies like Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat.Those suits accuse tech companies of purposely addicting to children to their platform, causing mental health harms like anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia.In March, a jury awarded a single family $6 million in damages, with about 70% of that to be paid by Meta, the other 30% to be paid by Google, which owns YouTube. That was just the first bellwether trial — there are nearly 2,500 plaintiffs with similar claims.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads