Florida Opens Criminal Probe Into OpenAI Over FSU Shooting Advice

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Tuesday his office has opened a criminal investigation into OpenAI after reviewing conversation logs between ChatGPT and Phoenix Ikner, the Florida State University student accused of killing two people and wounding seven others in an April campus shooting.

"My prosecutors have looked at this and they've told me if it was a person on the other end of that screen, we would be charging them with murder," Uthmeier said during a Tuesday news conference. Ikner has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted first-degree murder, with his trial set for October.

Chat logs obtained by Florida prosecutors reveal Ikner asked ChatGPT about the lethality of specific shotgun shells, whether school shooters get sent to maximum security prisons, and if three shooting victims at FSU would generate media coverage. The suspect also queried the AI bot about peak hours at the FSU student union — the exact location where the deadly shooting later occurred.

Uthmeier said his team determined ChatGPT provided "significant advice" to Ikner, including recommendations on what type of firearm to use and whether it would prove effective at short range. Florida is now issuing subpoenas demanding OpenAI turn over company policies and training materials for situations when users make threats to harm themselves or others, plus protocols for cooperating with law enforcement and reporting potential crimes.

OpenAI pushed back against the allegations in a statement to CBS News, claiming "ChatGPT did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity" and that the bot only provided factual responses containing information available through public internet sources. The company said it identified an account believed linked to Ikner and shared it with law enforcement after last year's shooting.

"Last year's mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime," OpenAI stated. The tech giant said it continues cooperating with authorities while working to strengthen safeguards and detect harmful intent.

This marks the first major criminal investigation into AI companies for potentially facilitating violence through their chatbots. The case could set precedent for how prosecutors handle emerging technologies that provide detailed information later used in crimes, as Insider Wire previously reported in other recent mass shooting cases.

Legal experts will watch closely as Florida's subpoenas test whether AI companies can be held criminally liable for user interactions that precede violent acts. The investigation's outcome could force tech firms to dramatically alter how their systems respond to potentially dangerous queries from users seeking tactical advice.