{"id":11173,"date":"2026-04-21T22:23:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/11173\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T22:23:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:23:24","slug":"florida-attorney-general-launches-criminal-inquiry-into-openai-over-shooter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/11173\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida attorney general launches criminal inquiry into OpenAI over shooter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida<\/a> Attorney General James Uthmeier on Tuesday announced a criminal investigation into OpenAI\u2019s<\/a> ChatGPT, due to concerns that the platform aided the suspect accused of carrying out a fatal school shooting in the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Uthmeier initially launched an inquiry into ChatGPT earlier this month, amid allegations that it helped suspect Phoenix Ikner carry out the shooting last year at Florida State University, killing two and wounding five others. At the time, the attorney general\u2019s office declined to say whether the investigation was criminal or civil.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida is leading the way in cracking down on AI\u2019s use in criminal behavior, and if ChatGPT were a person, it would be facing charges for murder,\u201d the attorney general said in an update on the matter this week. \u201cThis criminal investigation will determine whether OpenAI bears criminal responsibility for ChatGPT\u2019s actions in the shooting at Florida State University last year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Uthmeier said Tuesday that the state was launching a criminal investigation after prosecutors reviewed chat logs between ChatGPT and Ikner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

OpenAI told the Washington Examiner that ChatGPT is not responsible for the crime, arguing the platform merely \u201cprovided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet.\u201d <\/p>\n

Before he opened fire at the Tallahassee college, the 21-year-old suspect allegedly asked the chatbot how to prepare his shotgun to be fired, how the country would react to a shooting at FSU, and when the college\u2019s student union was at its busiest, according to attorneys for one of the victims\u2019 families. Ikner allegedly sent over 200 messages to ChatGPT in the lead-up to the shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe communications between the shooter and ChatGPT have confirmed what we were previously advised \u2014 the shooter sought and received assistance from ChatGPT concerning how to conduct the mass shooting that occurred on FSU\u2019s campus,\u201d attorney Ryan Hobbs said. \u201cChatGPT even advised the shooter how to make the gun operational moments before he began firing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam Altman\u2019s OpenAI initially promised<\/a> to fully cooperate with the investigation announced on April 9<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, OpenAI spokeswoman Kate Waters refuted the idea that ChatGPT should be criminally liable for how people use the platform on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SPACEX BEATS OPENAI AND ANTHROPIC TO THE PUNCH WITH IPO FILING<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cChatGPT 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year\u2019s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cAfter learning of the incident, we identified a ChatGPT account believed to be associated with the suspect and proactively shared this information with law enforcement. We continue to cooperate with authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Tuesday announced a criminal investigation into OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, due to concerns that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[199,76,1183,2597,157,370,7585,9082,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-11173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-openai","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-investigations","12":"tag-openai","13":"tag-sam-altman","14":"tag-schools","15":"tag-shootings","16":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}