TAMPA, Fla. (WCTV) – Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Tuesday morning that his office is sending subpoenas to OpenAI and ChatGPT in connection with a criminal investigation.
This announcement came after Uthmeier said his office had been looking into the AI company for “several harms [that] Floridians, Americans, have been suffering as a result of ChatGPT.”
Uthmeier told reporters at the press conference that his office has seen “increases in self-harm and suicides by kids using this platform. We have seen individuals use this platform to engage in criminal activity. Such as child pornography, and then most recently […] we have been looking into the recent FSU shooting and that shooter’s communications with ChatGPT.”
Uthmeier went on to explain that after reviewing those communications, a criminal investigation became necessary. He told reporters that after his office’s initial review, “ChatGPT offered significant advice to the [FSU] shooter before he committed such heinous crimes.”
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“Technology, AI, is supposed to support mankind. It is supposed to help mankind. It is supposed to advance mankind. Not end it,” Uthmeier said.
Prosecutors with the state attorney general’s office informed Uthmeier that if there were a person on the other end of Phoenix Ikner’s screen corresponding with him, they would charge that person with murder.
Uthmeier went on to announce that his office is opening this investigation to determine whether there is sufficient criminal culpability in this case to charge OpenAI as a corporation.
WCTV’s Capitol Bureau reporter Cody Butler is following this developing story and will have more tonight on Eyewitness News and on WCTV.tv.
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