By Michael Moline | Editor in Chief
“Plaintiff brings good news to the Defendants: The Florida Attorney General is answering your cry for help with a motion to enjoin you from harming Floridians with your reckless, unacceptably risky product.” — motion filed against OpenAI by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier
The welcome screen for the OpenAI “ChatGPT” app is displayed on a laptop screen in a photo illustration. In the absence of federal action, states are increasingly striking out on their own to regulate artificial intelligence and other automated systems. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
James Uthmeier is seeking a temporary injunction against OpenAI and Chat GPT to block development of new artificial intelligence models without independent third-party safeguards and approval. This after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other tech leaders expressed concern that artificial intelligence development is advancing so fast countries need to work together on safety. The AG sued OpenAI and Altman in June, alleging the company knowingly released and aggressively marketed ChatGPT to the public while concealing “serious risks, suppressing internal safety warnings, and deceiving Floridians against the true nature and dangers of the product.”
From The Florida Trib comes the story of how lax policing and overreliance on artificial intelligence ruined the lives of a Jacksonville father and his family. “Nick” got taken into custody at his supermarket job after a friend used his photo to seek sex with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl (but was a cop.) It would have been easy for the police to find the real culprit (who’d served time for the same crime before) if they’d performed basic diligence. “Somebody needs to be held accountable for what they’re doing to people,” Nick told the Trib. “When you rush through these things to catch bad guys, you don’t realize you’re catching good guys instead.”
The topic is real estate wholesaling — these are the people who offer a quick buck for unwanted homes but sometimes take advantage of sellers, who may be elderly and don’t understand the stakes. Often, these buyers flip the houses right away, acting as middlemen. Lawmakers and regulators, backed by organized real estate trade groups and consumer advocacy organizations, are pushing for more limits on the practice.
MORE FROM THE PHOENIX
Thanks for reading Today on the Phoenix. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.