Attorney General of Florida James Uthmeier has opened a criminal investigation into OpenAI into whether its artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT could bear legal responsibility in last year’s deadly shooting at Florida State University.
The investigation follows a review of chat logs between the suspect, Phoenix Ikner, and ChatGPT after an April 17, 2025 attack that left two people dead and six others injured.
Uthmeier claimed the chatbot advised the shooter on what weapons and ammunition to use, as well as when and where to carry out the attack to encounter more people.
“If it was a person on the other side of the screen, we would charge them with murder,” Uthmeier said. “It is not because it is a chatbot, an AI, that there is no criminal culpability. So we will look who knew whatdesigned what or should have done more.
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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announces a criminal investigation into OpenAI during a press conference in Tallahassee. (Florida AG James Uthmeier Facebook/Fox News)
State officials are examining whether OpenAI could be held liable under Florida law, which allows those who aid, abet or counsel a crime to be charged as perpetrators.
The State Office of Criminal Prosecutions subpoenaed OpenAI for internal policies, training materials and records related to how the company handles threats of violence and cooperates with law enforcement, according to the announcement.
OpenAI pushed back on the claims, saying its technology neither enabled nor enabled the attack.
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OpenAI logo February 16, 2025 (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Reuters)
“Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,” OpenAI spokesperson Kate Waters said in a statement to Fox News. “Upon learning of the incident, we identified a ChatGPT account believed to be associated with the suspect and proactively shared this information with law enforcement.”
She said OpenAI continues to cooperate with authorities and is working to strengthen ChatGPT’s safeguards to detect “harmful intent, limit abuse, and respond appropriately when security risks arise.”
“In this case, ChatGPT provided factual answers to questions with information that could be found widely in public sources on the Internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activities,” Waters said. “ChatGPT is a general-purpose tool used every day by hundreds of millions of people for legitimate purposes.”
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Phoenix Ikner, 20, was indicted on first-degree murder and related charges Monday after being released from the hospital where he has been since the mass shooting on the Tallahassee campus on April 17. (Leon County Sheriff’s Office/Fox News)
Florida Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass said the case highlights broader concerns about artificial intelligence.
“Artificial intelligence is built by humans. Humans are fallible. Humans make mistakes,” Glass said.
Authorities previously said Ikner, 20, opened fire on campus using weapons stolen from his parents’ home before being shot and wounded by responding officers.
He was later charged with two counts first degree murder and seven counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm.
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The case is now being cited by Florida authorities as part of a broader push to crack down on crimes involving artificial intelligence, including legislation signed earlier this year increasing penalties for AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
