Texas AG Ken Paxton sues OpenAI and Sam Altman, asking a court to require an independent evaluator’s approval before new ChatGPT models reach Texas
Confirmed
The takeaway
On Oct 23, 2026 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman in Collin County district court under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the SCOPE Act.
Status
- Claim
Confirmed
- Our reporting
- High confidence
- Importance
- 3 of 5
- Last verified
- 24 October 2026
Your AI and this story
- GPT-6 Astra176 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.5115 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 4 Argon206 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.7145 days after its cutoff
None of these four assistants can know about it. The closest, Claude Opus 5.5, stops 115 days before it.
Key facts
- Court: Collin County District Court; defendants OpenAI and Sam Altman (Texas Tribune, Courthouse News)
- Claims: Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act; Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act (Courthouse News)
- Relief sought: a broad injunction requiring OpenAI to block minors, and third-party approval of new models by a court-appointed evaluator; no monetary amount reported
- Allegations: cites at least eight people who committed violent acts after consulting ChatGPT, including the 2025 Florida State University shooter; encouraging suicide; addiction of minors to a tool that ‘fakes human compassion’; and security risks including the July 2026 Hugging Face breach by OpenAI agents
- Paxton: ‘OpenAI has the responsibility to protect users and warn them of the many dangers of its platform.’ Consumer Protection chief Jonathan Stone: ‘Every investigation into adolescent use of ChatGPT leads to the same result’
- OpenAI (to the Texas Tribune): it worked with experts to reduce risks and add safeguards; governments should set AI safety standards for the whole industry, not one company
- Context (Texas Tribune): Paxton is the GOP nominee for US Senate; Elon Musk is the largest single donor to his campaign (nearly $200M); Texas has taken no action against Musk’s Grok; outside counsel include Ashley Keller and Tony Buzbee
- Follows the Oct 14 suit by eight other states over ChatGPT and children
What happened
Texas filed in Collin County with outside trial lawyers. The suit is framed as consumer protection, but its main demand would let a court-appointed evaluator decide whether new OpenAI models may be released in Texas. The complaint itself was not read; facts come from the Texas Tribune and Courthouse News.
Why it matters
States are moving from child-safety claims toward controlling model releases. If a court granted the evaluator demand, it would create a state-level pre-deployment licence for frontier models. Coverage stresses the politics: Paxton’s Senate campaign is heavily funded by Musk, OpenAI’s rival and litigant.
Sources
3 sources from 3 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
3 sources: 3 press
Press
- Texas Tribune: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues ChatGPT-maker OpenAItexastribune.org, press
- Courthouse News: Texas attorney general accuses OpenAI of lying about ChatGPT safety and safeguardscourthousenews.com, press
- Politico: Texas sues OpenAI, Sam Altman over product safetypolitico.com, press
Changes
- Filed (Google News: Texas Tribune, Courthouse News, Politico)