{"id":25253,"date":"2026-05-02T10:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T10:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/25253\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T10:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T10:20:11","slug":"how-chatgpt-conversations-became-a-treasure-trove-of-evidence-in-criminal-investigations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/25253\/","title":{"rendered":"How ChatGPT conversations became \u2018a treasure trove\u2019 of evidence in criminal investigations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Days before two University of South Florida graduate students<\/a> went missing last month, a roommate of one of the students allegedly asked the AI chatbot ChatGPT an unusual question.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens if a human has a put (sic) in a black garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster,\u201d Hisham Abugharbieh asked on April 13, according to an affidavit filed by Florida prosecutors.<\/p>\n

ChatGPT responded it sounded dangerous, the document states, and Abugharbieh then asked another question: \u201cHow would they find out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those alleged entries to ChatGPT, included in court documents charging Abugharbieh with two counts of first-degree murder, are just the latest instance of investigators using AI chat histories as evidence in criminal investigations. A ChatGPT conversation was similarly used in the Los Angeles wildfires arson case<\/a>, and a Snapchat AI conversation was key evidence in a 2024 murder trial<\/a> in Virginia.<\/p>\n

For investigators, these chat logs can provide valuable insights into a suspect\u2019s mindset and motive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think any communications with AI chatbots is like a treasure trove for law enforcement agencies,\u201d said Ilia Kolochenko, a cybersecurity expert and attorney in Washington, DC. \u201c(Suspects) believe their interactions with AI will remain confidential or will at least remain undisclosed or undiscovered, so they frequently ask very straightforward, very direct questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The criminal cases underscore the growing use of AI chatbots for personal advice and the lack of privacy protections for those conversations. While AI chatbots have rapidly become a go-to source for legal advice, medical diagnoses and therapy, those conversations are not legally protected the way they would be with a licensed lawyer, doctor or therapist.<\/p>\n

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said this lack of privacy is a \u201chuge issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople talk about the most personal sh*t in their lives to ChatGPT,\u201d Altman said last July on a podcast with the comedian Theo Von. \u201cPeople use it, young people especially, like use it as a therapist, a life coach, having these relationship problems. \u2018What should I do?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd right now, if you talk to a therapist or a lawyer or a doctor about those problems, there\u2019s like legal privilege for it. There\u2019s doctor-patient confidentiality, there\u2019s legal confidentiality, whatever. And we haven\u2019t figured that out yet for when you talk to ChatGPT. So if you go talk to ChatGPT about your most sensitive stuff and then there\u2019s like a lawsuit or whatever, we could be required to produce that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several legal experts who spoke to CNN agreed with that analysis and said there was no expectation of privacy on AI chat apps.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my firm, we\u2019re treating it as: Anything that somebody\u2019s typing into ChatGPT is something that could be discoverable,\u201d said Virginia Hammerle<\/a>, an attorney based in Texas.<\/p>\n

\"Investigators<\/p>\n

Investigators are looking closer at what people tell ChatGPT, and what ChatGPT tells them in return. – Matthias Balk\/picture-alliance\/dpa\/AP<\/p>\n

As investigators closely examine what users tell ChatGPT, they have also begun looking more closely at what ChatGPT tells users.<\/p>\n

Last week, Florida\u2019s attorney general launched a criminal investigation<\/a> into OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT gave \u201csignificant advice\u201d to the Florida State University mass shooting suspect. In Canada, the families of victims in a February school shooting sued OpenAI and Altman<\/a> on Wednesday, alleging the company and its ChatGPT chatbot were complicit in the attack.<\/p>\n

OpenAI laid out its \u201ccommitment to community safety\u201d in a lengthy statement<\/a> Tuesday. \u201cWe will continue to prioritize safety\u2060 while balancing privacy and other civil liberties so we can act on serious risks,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

Of course, the vast majority of people won\u2019t be implicated in a gruesome murder case. Still, legal experts told CNN that people should be cautious of what they tell AI chatbots, given these privacy issues and its growing role in people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only going to get more relevant, more timely, (and) more contentious as people continue to look for ChatGPT and other forms for information about what they\u2019re doing,\u201d CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson said.<\/p>\n

Chat logs in the courtroom<\/p>\n

The use of AI chat conversations in criminal cases is new, but legal experts said it\u2019s similar to how the law treats Google searches.<\/p>\n

In general, this type of electronic evidence can reveal a person\u2019s motive, actions and state of mind, Jackson said.<\/p>\n

For example, Brian Walshe was found guilty<\/a> last year of the murder of his wife, Ana, after prosecutors showed the jury his macabre Google searches<\/a>, such as \u201c10 ways to dispose of a dead body\u201d and \u201ccan you be charged with murder without a body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separately, Karen Read\u2019s murder trials<\/a> \u2013 in which a Boston police officer was found dead in the snow \u2013 focused on the meaning and mindset of a witness who had typed the Google search \u201c(how) long to die in cold.\u201d Read was ultimately acquitted of the most serious charges.<\/p>\n

Queries to AI platforms revealing a suspect\u2019s mindset have similarly come into play in several significant cases.<\/p>\n

Last October, federal prosecutors charged Jonathan Rinderknecht with arson<\/a> for allegedly starting a fire that later developed into the destructive Palisades Fire in California. Part of the evidence included his requests to ChatGPT. He asked the app to produce an image of people running from a fire, and he said that he once burned a Bible and \u201cfelt so liberated,\u201d according to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint.<\/p>\n

\"Last<\/p>\n

Last October, Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli said arson suspect Jonathan Rinderknecht asked ChatGPT to create images of people running from a fire. – Dean Musgrove\/Los Angeles Daily News\/MediaNews Group\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

After he called 911 to report the fire, he asked ChatGPT, \u201cAre you at fault if a fire is lift [sic] because of your cigarettes,\u201d according to the affidavit. However, prosecutors allege he started the fire \u201cmaliciously,\u201d likely with a lighter, and say his question to ChatGPT was an attempt to create a more \u201cinnocent explanation\u201d for the cause of the fire.<\/p>\n

Rinderknecht has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His attorney, Steve Haney, told CNN his client was not responsible for the Palisades Fire and said he has filed motions to exclude some of the ChatGPT evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our position that ChatGPT logs are neither a confession nor a crime scene,\u201d he said in an email. \u201cThe government is asking a jury to read a man\u2019s mind through a search bar, and neither science nor the law has ever permitted that kind of leap.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the case of the USF killings this month<\/a>, the suspect\u2019s questions to ChatGPT were noted in a criminal affidavit.<\/p>\n

In addition to the question about putting a human in a garbage bag, Abugharbieh asked ChatGPT whether he could legally keep a gun at home without a license and whether a car\u2019s Vehicle Identification Number could be changed, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

In the days after the disappearances of Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy, the alleged searches continued. On April 19, Abugharbieh asked ChatGPT, \u201cHas there been someone who survived a sniper bullet to the head,\u201d \u201cWill my neighbors hear my gun\u201d and \u201cIs there a water temperature that burns immediately,\u201d the affidavit states. On April 23, he searched, \u201cWhat does missing endangered adult mean,\u201d according to the filing.<\/p>\n

Limon\u2019s body was found in a garbage bag, officials said<\/a>. Another set of human remains were found in a second garbage bag, but they have not yet been confirmed to be Bristy\u2019s, officials said.<\/p>\n

Abugharbieh has been charged with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder. He has not entered a plea on the charges and was ordered held without bond<\/a>. The Hillsborough County Public Defender\u2019s Office was appointed to the case but declined to share details, citing Abugharbieh\u2019s right to a fair trial.<\/p>\n

Privacy concerns and the next frontier<\/p>\n

So should AI conversations have greater privacy protections?<\/p>\n

In his conversation with Von, Altman pushed for privacy protections for AI conversations, saying he was \u201cvery afraid\u201d the government would use chat logs to surveil people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we really have to defend rights to privacy,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think those are absolute. I\u2019m like totally willing to compromise some privacy for collective safety, but history is that the government takes that way too far, and I\u2019m really nervous about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other tech figures have made similar arguments. Nils Gilman, a historian and senior adviser for the Berggruen Institute think tank, advocated in a New York Times op-ed<\/a> last year for laws creating a legal privilege for AI.<\/p>\n

Speaking to CNN, he argued that policymakers created legal privileges for doctors, lawyers and therapists because the social benefit of having honest conversations outweighs the state\u2019s interest in accessing that information.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsofar as people are using (large language models) the same way, they should be afforded the same kinds of privileges,\u201d Gilman said.<\/p>\n

In the eyes of the law, though, AI chatbots don\u2019t have any such expertise or protections. Conversations with AI are equivalent to any other electronic data, such as a credit card swipe or phone call logs, legal experts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re inputting data into an actual application, and as a result of that, you don\u2019t have any particular protections associated with that data,\u201d Jackson, the CNN legal analyst, said. \u201cIt would be like me making a phone call and then arguing you can\u2019t use the phone call against me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A file photo depitcts a mobile phone displaying the welcome screen to the ChatGPT app. – Gareth Fuller\/Press Association\/AP<\/p>\n

There may be some protections in specific situations. For example, if your attorney puts your private case file into a chatbot\u2019s database, would that be discoverable evidence? What if you are representing yourself in court and ask ChatGPT for help drafting a document?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law is still trying to catch up with the real world right now,\u201d Hammerle said.<\/p>\n

But as the law stands now, those AI conversations can find their way from a computer into the courtroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cChatGPT is not your friend, is not your lawyer, is not your doctor, is not your spouse,\u201d Gilman said. \u201cStop talking to them as if they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Days before two University of South Florida graduate students went missing last month, a roommate of one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[580,8822,15248,7842,2599,1183,8870,17056,13491,157,370,13490],"class_list":{"0":"post-25253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-openai","8":"tag-chatgpt","9":"tag-conversations","10":"tag-criminal-cases","11":"tag-criminal-investigation","12":"tag-criminal-investigations","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-florida-state-university","15":"tag-garbage-bag","16":"tag-hisham-abugharbieh","17":"tag-openai","18":"tag-sam-altman","19":"tag-university-of-south-florida"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25253","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=25253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}