{"id":35033,"date":"2026-05-11T19:42:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/35033\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T19:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:42:20","slug":"chatgpt-told-fsu-shooter-that-attacking-children-would-bring-more-attention-lawsuit-alleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/35033\/","title":{"rendered":"ChatGPT Told FSU Shooter that Attacking Children Would Bring More Attention, Lawsuit Alleges"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n

A lawsuit alleges that ChatGPT told accused gunman Phoenix Ikner that shootings are more likely to gain national attention \u201cif children are involved\u201d<\/p>\n

The complaint claims Ikner discussed firearms, mass shootings and peak traffic times at FSU’s student union with the chatbot before the attack<\/p>\n

OpenAI says ChatGPT provided \u201cfactual responses\u201d and \u201cdid not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity\u201d<\/p>\n

The widow of a man killed in last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University<\/a> is suing OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT helped accused gunman Phoenix Ikner<\/a> plan aspects of the deadly attack through months of conversations about firearms, mass shootings and crowded areas on campus.<\/p>\n

Vandana Joshi \u2014 whose husband, Tiru Chabba, was killed alongside Florida State University dining coordinator Robert Morales in the April 2025 shooting \u2014 filed the federal lawsuit Sunday against OpenAI and Ikner, according to NBC News<\/a> and CBS News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges ChatGPT discussed weapons, tactical details and peak traffic times at FSU’s student union with Ikner before the shooting, which also left five other people injured, per the outlets. PEOPLE previously reported that Chabba and Morales were killed when a gunman opened fire near the university’s student union building around lunchtime on April 17, 2025.<\/p>\n

OpenAI denied responsibility for the attack in a statement shared with NBC News and CBS News.<\/p>\n

\"Tiru<\/p>\n

Tiru Chabba, Robert Morales
Credit: Courtesy of The Strom Law Firm; gofundme<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,\u201d OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said, according to the outlets.<\/p>\n

Pusateri added that ChatGPT \u201cprovided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet\u201d and \u201cdid not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity,\u201d per NBC and CBS.<\/p>\n

According to the complaint, Ikner spent months discussing \u201chis interests in Hitler, Nazis, fascism, national socialism, Christian nationalism, and perceptions about \u2018Jews’ and \u2018blacks’\u201d with the chatbot before the shooting, NBC reported.<\/p>\n

The complaint also alleges Ikner shared images of firearms with ChatGPT and received guidance about how to use them, including statements that a Glock handgun had no safety and was \u201cquick to use under stress,\u201d according to NBC.<\/p>\n

Per the complaint, ChatGPT allegedly told Ikner that shootings are more likely to gain national attention \u201cif children are involved,\u201d according to NBC.<\/p>\n

\"Credit:<\/p>\n

Credit: Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo\/Getty<\/p>\n

The complaint also alleges ChatGPT discussed peak traffic times at FSU’s student union with Ikner, allegedly telling him that weekday lunchtimes between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. were busiest. Ikner allegedly began the shooting around 11:57 a.m., NBC reported.<\/p>\n

The complaint further alleges Ikner asked ChatGPT about \u201cthe legal process, sentencing, and incarceration outlook\u201d on the day of the shooting, per the outlet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIkner had multiple lengthy conversations with ChatGPT about his interests in Hitler, Nazis, fascism, national socialism, Christian nationalism and worse. They talked about multiple mass shootings and they planned this shooting together,\u201d attorney Bakari Sellers, who represents Joshi, said in a statement shared by CBS News.<\/p>\n

\"Phoenix<\/p>\n

Phoenix Ikner
Credit: Leon County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges OpenAI \u201cfailed to connect the dots\u201d despite Ikner’s repeated conversations about violence, terrorism, suicide and mass shootings, according to NBC.<\/p>\n

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for\u00a0PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.<\/p>\n

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier previously announced a criminal investigation into OpenAI after reviewing Ikner’s chat logs, NBC reported.<\/p>\n

PEOPLE previously reported<\/a> that Ikner \u2014 the son of a longtime Leon County sheriff’s deputy \u2014 was shot by police after the attack and hospitalized. Authorities said at the time that a handgun found at the scene belonged to his mother.<\/p>\n

\"Credit:<\/p>\n

Credit: Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo\/Getty<\/p>\n

Ikner, 21, has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder charges connected to the shooting and is expected to stand trial later this year, according to CBS News.<\/p>\n

The case is one of several recent lawsuits alleging AI chatbots played a role in violent crimes or mental health crises. NBC reported that OpenAI was also sued last month by families connected to a school shooting in Canada.<\/p>\n

Read the original article on People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW A lawsuit alleges that ChatGPT told accused gunman Phoenix Ikner that shootings are more likely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[580,8823,10227,8929,157,8849,10246,19226,21843],"class_list":["post-35033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-openai","tag-chatgpt","tag-fsu","tag-mass-shootings","tag-nbc-news","tag-openai","tag-phoenix-ikner","tag-robert-morales","tag-student-union","tag-vandana-joshi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35033","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=35033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}