Florida’s Attorney General has launched a criminal probe into ChatGPT and its parent company OpenAI to investigate information the generative AI tool allegedly provided to a gunman who killed two people at Florida State University last year.
The suspect, Phoenix Ikner, a 20-year-old student, is accused of killing two people and attempting to murder six others in the attack on 17 April 2025, according to authorities.
James Uthmeier said on Tuesday (21 April) that “the chatbot advised the shooter on what type of gun to use, on which ammo went with which gun, on whether or not a gun would be useful at short range” and added that if the information had been given by a person rather than a computer programme, “we would be charging them with murder.”
The investigation will explore whether “OpenAI bears criminal responsibility for ChatGPT’s actions in the shooting”, the Attorney General’s office said. The Office of Statewide Prosecution has subpoenaed OpenAI for information and records.
OpenAI has responded to the probe, saying the company is not to blame. A spokeswoman said that while the shooting was a tragedy, the firm does not accept responsibility and had identified an account believed to be linked to the suspect, proactively sharing that information with law enforcement.
"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," she said.
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