The widow of one of the victims of last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University is suing OpenAI, saying the company’s ChatGPT chatbot provided information investigators say helped plan the attack. The complaint, filed Sunday in federal court, alleges that the chatbot delivered guidance including what time and where on campus would maximize victims, as well as the type of gun and ammunition to use.
Vandana Joshi, whose husband, Tiru Chabba, was one of two people killed in the Florida State University shooting, said in a statement Monday that OpenAI knew such scenarios could occur. Joshi said her husband was killed in the “terrible crime,” and she blamed the company for the guidance she said was provided through ChatGPT.
The lawsuit also contends that ChatGPT advised the attacker that involving children could increase media attention. It further argues that OpenAI failed to add guardrails that would have alerted authorities when police investigation might be needed to prevent a specific plan for imminent harm to the public.
OpenAI, in response, denied any wrongdoing. Drew Pusateri, a spokesman for the company, told The Associated Press in an email that ChatGPT provided “factual responses” to questions that could be found broadly across public sources online and that it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity.
Investigators and state authorities also have disclosed another case involving ChatGPT. In April, Florida’s attorney general said there was a rare criminal investigation into whether ChatGPT offered advice to Phoenix Ikner that enabled an April 2025 shooting in Tallahassee. Ikner, 21, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and several counts of attempted murder, and prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty, according to the Associated Press report.
Investigators said Ikner was on campus for about an hour before he fired a handgun, moving in and out of campus buildings and green spaces, and the shooting occurred on a weekday just before lunchtime near the Student Union, where students and visitors typically go to eat and shop. The lawsuit filed by Joshi says Ikner asked ChatGPT about the busiest times.
Joshi’s husband, Tiru Chabba, was described as a 45-year-old father of two from Greenville, South Carolina, and as a regional vice president of the food service vendor Aramark Collegiate Hospitality. The other person killed, Robert Morales, 57, was described as a campus dining coordinator at Florida State University.
In her statement released through her lawyer, Joshi also accused OpenAI of putting profits over safety. She said the company “need[s] to be responsible” before another family has to go through what she described.
The lawsuit is among several legal actions seeking damages from AI and technology companies over alleged harms connected to chatbots and social media. In March, a jury in Los Angeles found Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children using their services, and in New Mexico, a jury determined that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.