Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has launched a criminal investigation into OpenAI after conducting an initial probe into the company’s ChatGPT program. The artificial intelligence chatbot, he said, gave detailed advice to a suspected shooter who allegedly used it in a deadly campus shooting at Florida State University last year.
“Florida law states that anyone who aids, abets, or counsels someone in the commission of a crime, and that crime is committed or attempted, is a principal in the first degree,” Uthmeier told reporters at a news conference in Tampa on April 21.
Two people were killed and seven people, including the suspect, were injured on April 17, 2025, during the shooting on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee. Phoenix Ikner, the 20-year-old suspect, is scheduled to stand trial later this year.
An OpenAI spokesperson said the San Francisco-based company continues to cooperate with law enforcement in the investigation.
“Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible,” spokeswoman Kate Waters told The Epoch Times in an email. “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.”
Waters said the company denies that its chatbot encouraged the shooter in the incident.
“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. We work continuously to strengthen our safeguards to detect harmful intent, limit misuse, and respond appropriately when safety risks arise.”
The attorney general’s office issued subpoenas in the criminal investigation on April 21 for information related to policies and internal training materials regarding user threats of harm to others, harm to self, cooperation with law enforcement, and what policies were in place that might have changed since last year’s shooting.
The company was also subpoenaed for all media publicly released after the shooting and all statements, press releases, and media interviews.
In the state’s investigation, Uthmeier said, prosecutors found that ChatGPT advised the shooter on what type of gun to use, which ammunition went with which gun, and whether or not a gun would be useful in short-range shooting. The chatbot also allegedly advised the shooter on what time of day would be appropriate for the shooting in order to interact with more people, and where on campus he would likely encounter a higher population of students.
“If this were a person on the other end of the screen, we would be charging them with murder,” Uthmeier said. “That bot is not a person, but that does not absolve our office, my prosecution team, of our duty to investigate whether or not there is criminal culpability here for a corporation.”
The attorney general said that he believes in limited government and not interfering in business activities, but that this case is different.
“We cannot have AI bots that are advising people on how to kill others,” Uthmeier said. “That is wrong, and that is dangerous.
“AI is supposed to support mankind. It is supposed to help mankind. It is supposed to advance mankind. Not end it.”
Uthmeier’s announcement comes months after his office first announced the start of an investigation into the company over reports of several harms suffered by Florida residents who used the platform, including suicide.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass said his agency plans to make all resources available in the case.
“It is important that all are aware of the risks of this new technology, and the harms it can and has already caused in our communities,” Glass said during the news conference.
Friends Read Free
Copy
Facebook
Tweet
