OpenAI Dismissal Motion Says ChatGPT Is Mere Tool, Not Attorney

ChatGPT shouldn’t be treated as a lawyer despite its popular use by pro se litigants to draft legal filings, OpenAI Foundation told a federal court.

OpenAI can’t be held responsible for a woman who violated her settlement agreement with Nippon Life Insurance Company of America based on advice from ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence platform argued in its dismissal motion.

“ChatGPT is not a ‘person,’ but a tool that relies on statistics to predict the most appropriate sequence of words based on its training,” OpenAI told the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

“It is incapable of practicing law within the meaning of the statute,” the filing said in reference to an Illinois law.

Nippon sued OpenAI in March for tortious interference with contract, abuse of process, and unlicensed practice of law. The insurer claimed OpenAI engaged in these unlawful acts by assisting Graciela Dela Torre in her attempts to reopen her disability case against Nippon.

Nippon’s lawsuit incorporates ChatGPT’s terms of use, but the terms allegedly state that users like Dela Torre “expressly agree that they will not rely on Output ‘as a substitute for professional advice.’” Despite agreeing to those terms, Dela Torre “used ChatGPT as a tool to help her, as a pro se litigant, navigate the legal system without the benefit of counsel,” the motion alleged.

OpenAI also argued that Nippon’s tortious interference claim was legally and factually flawed under Illinois law because the “requisite intent to induce requires active persuasion, encouragement, or incitement that goes far beyond passively and automatically generating information in response to prompts.”

The artificial intelligence platform used similar arguments to refute Nippon’s claims that OpenAI had assisted in an abuse of process and engaged in unlicensed legal practice.

“Making available a general purpose tool like ChatGPT for use by millions of people in the public is not aiding and abetting,” OpenAI said. Nor does ChatGPT have the capacity to practice law or “consciously, voluntarily and culpably participate in any alleged wrongdoing,” the motion added.

Legal assistance from artificial intelligence has been recognized as appropriate by the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the Illinois Supreme Court, and other jurisdictions, OpenAI said. Since Dela Torre wrote the legal filings, Nippon should’ve raised any grievances it had about those filings against her rather than the AI platform, the motion argued.

Nippon is represented by in-house counsel and Croke, Fairchild, Duarte & Beres LLC. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC and Mandell PC represent OpenAI.

The case is Nippon Life Ins. Co. of Am. v. OpenAI Foundation, N.D. Ill., No. 1:26-cv-02448, dismissal motion filed 5/15/26.