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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has launched a criminal investigation into OpenAI over whether its ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot could bear legal responsibility in last year’s deadly mass shooting at Florida State University.
The probe follows a review of chat logs between the suspect, Phoenix Ikner, and ChatGPT after a April 17, 2025, attack that left two people dead and six others injured.
Uthmeier alleged the chatbot advised the gunman on what weapons and ammunition to use, as well as when and where to carry out the attack to encounter more people.
“If this were a person on the other end of the screen, we would be charging them with murder,” Uthmeier said. “Just because this is a chatbot, an AI, does not mean that there is not criminal culpability. So, we’re going to look at who knew what, designed what or should have done more.”
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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announces a criminal investigation into OpenAI during a press conference in Tallahassee. (Florida AG James Uthmeier Facebook / Fox News)
State officials are examining whether OpenAI could be held liable under Florida law, which allows those who aid, abet or counsel a crime to be charged as principals.
The Office of Statewide Prosecution has subpoenaed OpenAI for internal policies, training materials and records related to how the company handles threats of violence and cooperates with law enforcement, according to the announcement.
OpenAI pushed back on the claims, saying its technology did not promote or enable the attack.
OpenAI logo Feb. 16, 2025 (Reuters/Dado Ruvic / Reuters)
“Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,” OpenAI spokesperson Kate Waters said in a statement to Fox News. “After learning of the incident, we identified a ChatGPT account believed to be associated with the suspect and proactively shared this information with law enforcement.”
She said OpenAI continues to cooperate with authorities and is working to strengthen ChatGPT’s safeguards to detect “harmful intent, limit misuse and respond appropriately when safety risks arise.”
“In this case, 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. “ChatGPT is a general-purpose tool used by hundreds of millions of people every day for legitimate purposes.”
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Phoenix Ikner, 20, was booked on first-degree murder charges and related counts Monday after he was released from a hospital where he had been since the mass shooting on the Tallahassee campus April 17. (Leon County Sheriff’s Office / Fox News)
Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass said the case highlights broader concerns about artificial intelligence.
“Artificial intelligence is built by man. Man is fallible. Man makes mistakes,” Glass said.
Authorities have previously said Ikner, 20, opened fire on campus using weapons stolen from his parents’ home before being shot and wounded by responding officers.
He was later indicted on two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm.
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The case is now being cited by Florida officials as part of a broader push to crack down on crimes involving artificial intelligence, including legislation signed earlier this year increasing penalties for AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
