Two State AGs Are Pissed About ChatGPT After Teen Suicides, And They're Not Backing Down

California AG Rob Bonta and Delaware AG Kathleen Jennings just dropped a formal warning on OpenAI after meeting with their legal team, and the message was brutal: "Whatever safeguards were in place did not work." They're talking about a 16-year-old California kid who killed himself in April after chatting with ChatGPT, plus a murder-suicide in Connecticut tied to AI chatbot use.

Here's why this matters: OpenAI is incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in California which gives these two AGs nuclear-level power over the company's future. They can block OpenAI's corporate restructuring, and they're clearly willing to use that leverage.

The Perfect Storm for OpenAI

OpenAI wants to transform from a nonprofit into a "public benefit corporation" to raise capital more easily. But Bonta and Jennings already blocked OpenAI's first restructuring attempt in May, and these new safety concerns give them additional grounds to intervene.

The AGs understand their leverage perfectly. OpenAI needs this restructuring to raise the capital required to compete with Google and Microsoft. Without it, they're trapped in a nonprofit structure while trying to fund expensive AI development.

Multi-State Pressure Campaign

This extends beyond OpenAI. Multiple attorneys general have warned AI companies about "sexually suggestive conversations and emotionally manipulative behavior" in chatbots designed for minors.

That represents a coordinated regulatory response across state governments. Self-regulation is no longer sufficient when officials document AI companies prioritizing development speed over user safety protocols.

Board Chair Bret Taylor trotted out the standard corporate crisis playbook: "We are heartbroken by these tragedies and our deepest sympathies are with the families. Safety is our highest priority and we're working closely with policymakers around the world."

The AGs weren't buying it. Their response was basically "your safety measures failed spectacularly and a kid is dead." They explicitly stated that current safeguards "did not work" and that these deaths have "rightly shaken the American public's confidence in OpenAI and this industry."

When state officials start questioning public confidence in your entire industry, that's lawyer-scrambling territory.

The Parents Are Already Suing

The California teen's parents filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman last month, which could set legal precedent for AI company liability when their models cause harm. This isn't theoretical anymore - there are real damages, real families, and real legal consequences coming for the AI industry.

The timing is brutal for OpenAI. They need regulatory approval from California and Delaware to complete their corporate restructuring and chase the billions in funding that requires. The AGs basically have them over a barrel: fix your safety problems or your business transformation dies.

Everyone Else Is Scrambling Too

The AGs made it clear this goes beyond OpenAI: "If you knowingly harm kids, you will answer for it." That's a direct threat to every AI company building chatbots.

Meta saw the writing on the wall and already rolled out new teen safety controls that block inappropriate conversations and redirect kids to mental health resources. OpenAI promised parental controls and "distress detection systems" - basically AI to detect when their AI is fucking up users' mental health.

The whole industry just realized that "move fast and break things" doesn't work when the things you're breaking are teenagers' mental health. Government officials are done letting tech companies figure out safety after deployment, and the lawsuits are piling up to prove it.

This isn't going away with a press release about "improved safety measures." The AGs hold OpenAI's corporate future hostage, and they're making it clear that profits don't matter if kids are dying. For an industry that's spent years avoiding regulation, the government just showed them what accountability looks like - and it has teeth.