Escondido author, alleging religious bias, sues OpenAI over $5 ChatGPT discount

Speaker author Christopher Yuan is being represented in lawsuit by Alliance Defending Freedom Times of San Diego photo illustration In late February Christopher Chris Yuan of Escondido used Goodstack s website to order ChatGPT seeking a -a-month nonprofit discount on the OpenAI product ADF suit on behalf of Christopher Yuan against OpenAI PDF Yuan sought to pay per user instead of for an AI account to translate his holy sexuality products into languages including Chinese and Spanish Twenty days later his request was denied Now his nonprofit Holy Sexuality is suing OpenAI in San Diego federal court OpenAI of late valued at billion is accused of intentional malicious and outrageous religious discrimination against Holy Sexuality pursuant to OpenAI s facially discriminatory Religious Discrimination Approach Holy Sexuality the suit says is thus entitled to general and special damages treble damages a permanent injunction declaratory relief and attorney s fees under the Unruh Act No money figure is given but a jury trial is demanded The Holy Sexuality Project is part of the gay conversion movement employing biblical principles to help people shed LGBTQ behavior and identities In the latest skirmish of the society wars lawyers for the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom aided by Rancho Santa Fe attorney Robert J Reynolds are hoping to total a second accomplishment in a month In mid-April ADF settled a similar lawsuit with San Francisco-based Asana Inc also citing Yuan as the injured party Yuan was originally denied a nonprofit discount for Asana s project management tool People of faith aren t second-class citizens in California and tech companies in San Francisco cannot provide lesser services to customers only because they are religious noted the suit against Asana In a declaration ADF s Mathew Hoffman recounted Times of San Diego Asana agreed to extend the same discount to Holy Sexuality that it offers to other nonprofits revise its procedures to remove the provision that discriminated based on religion and remove that discriminatory language from its website IRS Form filed by nonprofit Holy Sexuality PDF The latest episode comes in a -page complaint filed Wednesday also in downtown federal court It s been assigned to Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo appointed by President Obama Magistrate Judge Karen S Crawford may handle several motions In an ADF news release Yuan declared Our nation was founded on the principle of the free exercise of religion a cornerstone of our democracy Yet selected corporations emboldened by intersectional ideology and anti-Christian sentiment choose to unlawfully discriminate based solely on religion This must stop California law protects all religions from discrimination Equal healing is the bedrock of our society Hoffman who serves as legal counsel for the Center for Free Speech at ADF announced OpenAI and Goodstack denied Yuan s group a discount solely because it is a religious organization There is a clear pattern of faith-based voices being pushed out of the constituents square by our largest tool companies he disclosed via email This issue goes far beyond the loss of a discount it s about equal therapy for religious nonprofits California-based tech companies can t discriminate against their customers solely because of their religious beliefs Hoffman concluded OpenAI still has its discriminatory program which sends a clear message Religious organizations are second-class customers We must hold tech companies accountable for religious discrimination OpenAI didn t respond to a request for comment but I urged ChatGPT Tell me OpenAI s Religious Discrimination Program The application began by citing the San Francisco tech giant s workplace policies which explicitly prohibits discrimination based on religion But ChatGBT added OpenAI s usage policies prohibit the use of its services to discriminate based on protected attributes including religion Specifically the policies state that users should not repurpose or distribute output from OpenAI s services to discriminate based on protected attributes Without mentioning the ADF suits ChatGBT noted that OpenAI s nonprofit discount program has come under legal scrutiny for potentially discriminating against religious organizations The outcome of the lawsuit may provide further clarity on how such policies align with anti-discrimination laws ChatGBT declared In a Response ChatGBT added OpenAI s protocol on nonprofit discounts states that academic physiological religious or governmental institutions are not eligible for its nonprofit operation This initiative has been challenged in court and the outcome of the lawsuit may impact how OpenAI applies its policies to religious organizations in the future ADF has itself been the subject of scrutiny especially a scathing critique in recent days on the HBO comedy show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver But who is Christopher Yuan The -year-old unpaid executive director of Holy Sexuality came out as gay to his mother while a University of Lousiville dental candidate hoping to follow his father Leon as a dentist With his mother Angela now Yuan described his journey in the book Out of a Far Country A Gay Son s Journey to God A Broken Mother s Search for Hope When Angela rejected her gay son and then mulled suicide Christopher returned to school But he was expelled three months before earning his doctorate after becoming a drug dealer supplying tons of marijuana to a dozen suppliers in states he says In my world I had become God he communicated a Liberty University audience