EPIC Joins Coalition to Urge OpenAI to Withdraw California AI Safety Ballot Initiative

In a letter sent to OpenAI on Wednesday, EPIC and a diverse coalition of child safety advocates, civil society groups, and technology policy organizations called on OpenAI to fully withdraw its AI safety ballot initiative in California. 

Despite its name, the Parents & Kids Safe AI Act, the initiative was designed to protect OpenAI, not children. It cements child-safety protections that are too narrow, limits families’ ability to sue, and sets the dangerous precedent that the companies responsible for these harms can write the rules that govern them. 

At least seven families have now filed suit against OpenAI over teen suicides and psychiatric hospitalizations linked to ChatGPT, the letter notes, and the company itself has disclosed that more than one million users per week engage with ChatGPT specifically about suicidal thoughts.  

“A company with this record does not get to write the rules,” the letter reads, “And a ballot initiative is not the place to let them try.” 

EPIC has long advocated for increased safety and accountability in AI, including through publishing the People-First Chatbot Bill, a model bill that contains meaningful safeguards against chatbot harms. We would be eager to work with legislators in California who want to take real steps to reduce chatbot harms.