OAKLAND - California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings this week met with and sent a letter to OpenAI expressing their deep concern over increased reports of how OpenAI's products interact with children. Because OpenAI operates in California, Attorney General Bonta is currently investigating the company's proposed financial and governance restructuring. This week's meeting comes a week after Attorney General Bonta and 44 attorneys general sent a letter to 12 of the top AI companies, following reports of sexually inappropriate interactions between AI chatbots and children.

"I am absolutely horrified by the news of children who have been harmed by their interactions with AI - including one young Californian who died by suicide after interacting with a chatbot. This is extremely worrying for parents, policy makers, and regulatory leaders everywhere - and I certainly expect alarms to be blaring inside the walls of AI companies around the world," said Attorney General Bonta. "As the fourth largest economy in the world, California knows that protecting our kids and pursuing innovation can and must go hand in hand; they are not opposites. My office, working alongside Delaware Attorney General Jennings, has been reviewing the proposed restructuring of OpenAI. Together, we are particularly concerned with ensuring that the stated safety mission of OpenAI as a non-profit remains front and center. OpenAI purports to build AI to benefit all of humanity. Humanity includes children. And before we can even get to benefiting, we need to get to not harming. This week, I expressed my extreme dismay at OpenAI's current approach to AI safety and made clear that California is paying very close attention to how the company is crafting their policies surrounding AI safety, especially when it comes to interacting with children. Companies developing and deploying AI technologies must exercise sound judgment and must not hurt children. One child harmed is one too many."

The letter by Attorney General Bonta and Attorney General Jennings to the OpenAI board is attached here.