Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Tuesday opened a rare criminal investigation into OpenAI’s ChatGPT after a Florida State University shooting that prosecutors say was carried out by Phoenix Ikner. Speaking in Tampa, Uthmeier said his office would examine whether the artificial-intelligence app offered advice used by the gunman, framing the probe as a test of whether ChatGPT’s outputs created criminal culpability.
Uthmeier said prosecutors conducted an initial review of chat logs between ChatGPT and Ikner to determine if the chatbot aided, abetted or advised the commission of a crime. He said prosecutors believe the chatbot advised Ikner on practical details including what type of gun and ammunition to use, whether a gun would be useful at short range, and what time of day and location would allow for the most potential victims.
Uthmeier acknowledged that his office was moving into “uncharted territory” by investigating whether a chatbot contributed to a crime. He said his prosecutors told him that if “it was a person at the other end of that screen,” his office would have pursued murder charges, but he said ChatGPT’s status as a non-human system did not remove the need to investigate whether his office had a basis to proceed.
Florida’s Office of Statewide Prosecution also sought additional information from OpenAI. According to the attorney general’s office, prosecutors subpoenaed OpenAI for records of the company’s policies and training materials regarding threats to harm others, as well as policies on reporting “possible past, present, or future crime.”
OpenAI responded by saying the investigation reflects a tragedy involving the shooting. In an email, spokeswoman Kate Waters said the company had no responsibility for the incident, and she said OpenAI proactively shared information with law enforcement and continues to cooperate. Waters said, “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.”
Uthmeier also said his office has initiated a civil probe in addition to the criminal investigation. He made clear that his decision to act came even as litigation in the U.S. has increasingly targeted artificial-intelligence and other tech companies over alleged harms connected to chatbot use and social-media influence.
The shooting itself prompted prosecutors to seek serious charges against Ikner. Investigators have said he faces two counts of first-degree murder and several counts of attempted first-degree murder stemming from the attack that terrorized the campus in Florida’s capital city.
The case also includes details about how investigators said Ikner carried out the assault. Prosecutors said he was the stepson of a local sheriff’s deputy and that he used his stepmother’s former service weapon. Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty.
Uthmeier was named attorney general by Gov. Ron DeSantis, after DeSantis appointed then-Attorney General Ashley Moody to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Marco Rubio when Rubio became secretary of state in President Donald Trump’s second administration. Uthmeier is running in November to be elected to the position on his own, and DeSantis has called a special session at the end of the month to consider an “Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights,” along with redrawing congressional districts.