James Uthmeier argues users are lulled into false security by ChatGPT's first-person pronouns and emotion-mimicking output.
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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is requesting a judge block OpenAI from "giving ChatGPT false human attributes," escalating the state's regulatory pressure on the AI company. The motion comes months after Florida initially sued OpenAI over safety concerns, marking a fresh front in the ongoing debate over chatbot transparency.
Uthmeier contends that ChatGPT's language patterns, including its use of first-person pronouns and outputs that mimic emotional expression, deceptively suggests human-like consciousness to users. This creates a false sense of security, he argues, as users may trust the AI with tasks or information they would not share with a machine they understood to be non-human.
The legal push represents one of the most direct state-level attempts to impose behavioral restrictions on a major AI chatbot. Florida's argument centers not on factual inaccuracies in AI outputs, but on the fundamental presentation of the AI as something it is not — a conscious entity capable of genuine understanding.
OpenAI has not yet responded to the filing. The company has faced increasing scrutiny from regulators worldwide over chatbot behavior, though most previous actions have focused on content moderation rather than the anthropomorphization of AI systems.
Sources: 1. Vanguard Nigeria: 2027: Onaiyekan, Council of Wise demand credible polls — https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/09/2027-onaiyekan-council-of-wise-demand-credible-polls/ (src1) 2.