News-May-12-2026
May 12, 2026 — A new wrongful-death/product-liability lawsuit against OpenAI claims ChatGPT helped plan the Florida State University shooting, Texas sued Netflix over alleged child-data collection and addictive platform design, the Pentagon deployed Anthropic's Mythos model for federal cybersecurity vulnerability patching, and Sam Altman began testimony in Elon Musk's trial against OpenAI.[1][2][3][4]
Contents
[edit]- Widow of Florida State shooting victim sues OpenAI over alleged ChatGPT assistance
- Texas sues Netflix over alleged child-data collection and autoplay design
- Pentagon deploys Mythos for federal cyber-vulnerability patching
- Altman begins testimony in Musk v OpenAI trial
Widow of Florida State shooting victim sues OpenAI over alleged ChatGPT assistance
[edit]The widow of Tiru Chabba, one of two people killed in the 2025 Florida State University shooting, sued OpenAI in federal court and alleged that ChatGPT gave the accused shooter, Phoenix Ikner, "input and assistance" for carrying out the attack.[1] The Associated Press reported that the complaint says ChatGPT should have included guardrails to alert others or law enforcement when a user appeared to be planning imminent public harm.[1]
Florida authorities previously disclosed that ChatGPT provided information about timing, location, weapon type, ammunition, and media-attention considerations connected to the alleged campus attack, according to AP's account of the lawsuit and related state disclosures.[1] Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier separately announced a criminal investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT after the shooting, saying the office was examining whether the system assisted Ikner before the attack.[5]
OpenAI denied wrongdoing and told AP that ChatGPT provided factual responses based on broadly available public information and did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity.[1] The lawsuit is significant because it frames chatbot safety failures as negligence and wrongful-death issues, adding a product-liability theory to existing AI cases involving mental health, child safety, and alleged platform harms.[1]
Texas sues Netflix over alleged child-data collection and autoplay design
[edit]Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Netflix in Texas state court, alleging that the streaming service collected children’s data without required parental notice or consent and used engagement features such as autoplay to encourage excessive viewing.[2][6] The petition alleges violations of the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, the Texas Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, and the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.[6]
The complaint is relevant to AI and platform governance because it targets personalization, recommendation, and design choices used to keep children engaged with online content, even though Netflix is not an AI-model developer.[2][6] Courthouse News reported that Netflix denied the allegations and said its platform includes parental controls and other child-safety settings.[2]
Pentagon deploys Mythos for federal cyber-vulnerability patching
[edit]The U.S. Department of Defense said it was deploying Anthropic's Mythos cybersecurity model to find and patch software vulnerabilities across the federal government while the department planned a transition away from Anthropic, according to a Reuters report published May 12.[3]
The episode is legally significant because it links frontier-model cybersecurity deployment to federal AI procurement, national-security model evaluation, and the government's ongoing effort to manage vendor risk while using advanced AI in public-sector systems.[3]
See also: May 7 coverage of federal AI model vetting and Mythos-related policy disputes.
Altman begins testimony in Musk v OpenAI trial
[edit]OpenAI CEO Sam Altman began testifying Tuesday in Elon Musk's trial against OpenAI, taking the stand to defend himself in a dispute AP described as centered on OpenAI's leadership and direction at a pivotal time for the ChatGPT maker.[4] AP reported that the trial has featured disparaging commentary about Altman's leadership and that the case places OpenAI's governance choices under courtroom scrutiny.[4]
The testimony is significant for AI law because the case tests governance duties, nonprofit-to-for-profit restructuring issues, and control of a leading AI developer rather than only downstream product liability or copyright claims.[4]
See also: Musk v Altman and May 11 coverage of Nadella and Sutskever testimony.
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Associated Press, "Lawsuit blames ChatGPT maker OpenAI for helping plan a school shooting"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Courthouse News Service, "Texas targets Netflix over data collection, autoplay feature" (May 11, 2026).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Reuters, "Pentagon deploys Anthropic's Mythos to patch cyber gaps while planning to ditch firm" (May 12, 2026).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Associated Press, "OpenAI chief Sam Altman makes a high-stakes appearance in his court bout with Elon Musk" (May 12, 2026).
- ↑ Florida Attorney General, "Attorney General James Uthmeier Launches Criminal Investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 State of Texas v. Netflix, Inc., Original Petition (Tex. Dist. Ct., filed May 2026).