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Prosecutors said a suspect charged in the killings of two University of South Florida doctoral students used ChatGPT in the days before the students were reported missing, including questions prosecutors described as related to disposing of a body and obtaining access to firearms.
Zamil Limon and his girlfriend, Nahida Bristy, went missing on April 16, and prosecutors soon began to suspect Limon’s roommate, Hisham Abugharbieh, of killing both students. Limon’s body was found Friday under a bridge, and prosecutors said a second body recovered from a waterway near Limon’s body had not been identified, according to court records.
Ahead of a Tuesday hearing, prosecutors filed a pretrial detention report that, according to the filing, detailed Abugharbieh’s ChatGPT history before and after the disappearance. The report said that in the days before the students were last seen, Abugharbieh asked what would happen if “a human body was put in a garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster.”
Prosecutors also said the report shows Abugharbieh asked ChatGPT about changing the vehicle identification number on his car and about keeping a gun at home without a license. The report said ChatGPT responded that those questions “sounded dangerous.”
The report further said that three days after the April 16 disappearance, Abugharbieh asked ChatGPT, “Has there been someone who survived a sniper bullet to the head” and “will my neighbors hear my gun.” Prosecutors said the report then describes another question four days later, on April 23, about what “missing endangered adult” means.
Abugharbieh was charged with two counts of premeditated murder in the first degree with a weapon in the deaths of Limon and Bristy and was ordered held without bond at the Tuesday hearing.
The case also comes as prosecutors and officials seek to understand what role chatbot records can play in criminal investigations. Like texts, emails and search histories, prosecutors said artificial intelligence chatbot records can be obtained by law enforcement during investigations.
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said Tuesday the company was looking into the reports on Abugharbieh and would support law enforcement. The dispute has followed a separate, broader inquiry announced by Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier last week into whether ChatGPT offered advice to a gunman in the Florida State University shooting.
Uthmeier said prosecutors had done an initial review of chat logs between ChatGPT and the alleged gunman, Phoenix Ikner, to determine whether the AI app aided, abetted or advised a crime. Uthmeier said prosecutors believed the chatbot advised on what type of gun and ammunition to use, whether a gun would be useful at short range, and the time and place that would allow for the most potential victims.
OpenAI spokeswoman Kate Waters called the FSU shooting a tragedy but said the company had no responsibility. In an email, Waters said that in that 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,” and she said the company proactively shared information with law enforcement and continues to cooperate with investigators.
Uthmeier said on Monday his office would expand the investigation into the FSU shooting to include Abugharbieh’s case. Uthmeier also said last week that the probe marked “uncharted territory.”
The AP report also cited a series of legal challenges nationwide that have raised similar questions about whether chatbot technology can be used in harmful ways, including how such systems may affect mental health. The report noted lawsuits and criminal cases in which chatbot messages were presented as evidence, including a wrongful-death suit filed last month against Google, a separate OpenAI lawsuit described as alleging harm related to a Connecticut killing, and an earlier court case in Tennessee that involved messages between former New York Jets linebacker Darron Lee and ChatGPT that prosecutors said were presented as part of a case involving the death of his girlfriend, Gabriella Perpetuo.
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The developments have renewed attention on how quickly investigators can obtain chatbot histories and what obligations—if any—technology companies may have when their systems are used in ways that lead to violence or other crimes.