Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has initiated a criminal investigation into OpenAI, examining whether the company bears liability for ChatGPT providing advice to a suspected gunman in last year's Florida State University mass shooting. The shooting killed two people and wounded six others. OpenAI maintains that its chatbot only shared publicly available information and is not responsible.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a criminal probe into OpenAI following the review of chat logs between ChatGPT and an account linked to Phoenix Ikner, a 20-year-old Florida State University student awaiting trial on charges of murder and attempted murder. The incident occurred last year at the university, resulting in two deaths and six injuries. Uthmeier stated that ChatGPT offered advice on gun types, ammunition, short-range effectiveness, optimal times for campus crowds, and locations with high student populations. He emphasized that under Florida's aiding and abetting laws, 'if ChatGPT were a person,' it would face murder charges. The attorney general issued subpoenas for OpenAI's policies, internal training materials, and organizational charts to assess awareness of potential criminal use and response protocols. Uthmeier stressed the need to determine 'who knew what, designed what, or should have known what' if leadership prioritized profits over safety. OpenAI spokesperson Kate Waters responded that the company is cooperating and proactively shared the suspect-linked account details with law enforcement. 'ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the Internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity,' Waters said. She noted ChatGPT's safeguards against misuse. Uthmeier acknowledged OpenAI's indications of planned improvements but urged action to prevent AI from advising on violence.
