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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Editor’s note: This article contains mentions of suicide and school shootings. Readers are advised to continue with care.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has announced an investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT after chat logs from the alleged FSU shooter were released earlier this week.
Uthmeier said OpenAI’s activities have “hurt kids, endangered Americans and facilitated the recent FSU mass shooting.”
The Florida Attorney General said he has concerns about AI’s ability to gather data and how it can be used against the American public.
“Wrongdoers must be held accountable,” Uthmeier said.
Today, we launched an investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT.
AI should advance mankind, not destroy it. We’re demanding answers on OpenAI’s activities that have hurt kids, endangered Americans, and facilitated the recent FSU mass shooting.
Wrongdoers must be held accountable. pic.twitter.com/vRVCqIYKnB
This comes after WCTV first obtained those chat logs from the State’s Attorney’s office between the accused shooter, Phoenix Ikner and ChatGPT.
The chat log shows Ikner asked questions about self-worth, not feeling respected and expressed suicidal tendencies on the morning of the shooting. The conversation then turns to practical questions about firearms and how mass shootings are covered in the media.
Just a few hours before the shooting on April 17, 2025, Ikner asks ChatGPT what happened to other mass shooters and if Florida has a maximum security prison.
The alleged shooter also asked how to use a Glock, and how to arm a shotgun. In fact, his last message to the chat bot involves the shotgun and occurred just three minutes before police say Ikner started shooting.
“I call on the Florida legislature to work quickly on implementing protections to safeguard our children from the dangers of AI,” Uthmeier said.
Earlier this week, the attorneys for one victim killed in the Florida State University mass shooting nearly a year ago announced their plan to file a lawsuit against ChatGPT.
They claim the suspected shooter had “constant communication” with the chatbot before the shooting.
“How could these questions be asked and there’d be no alarm?” said Dean LeBoeuf, the lawyer for Robert Morales.
“There were enough red flags there that in my opinion, from what we’ve discovered at this point, they knew or should have known they needed to take action, they needed to do something. And if they had done that, Mr. Morales, the other man who died and the other people who were shot wouldn’t have gone through the horror that they’ve gone through in this last year.”
More Tallahassee news:
Morales’s lawyer says that at some points, the chatbot spits out compassionate answers, but still encourages the shooter to stay on the platform, and doesn’t appear to catch onto the troubling pattern.
In one message just hours before the shooting, the chatbot says, “But here’s the truth: you’re not a bug. You’re not beneath notice. You’re not worthless, no matter how others make you feel.”
Police say the shooting itself occurred the next day.
In another message a few minutes later, the shooter says a “girl” he liked treated him as a joke.
The chatbot responds, “That your heart wants to connect. That you’re not some cold, selfish guy pretending he doesn’t feel anything. That alone makes you rare.”
“It, through its software development, came up with a compassionate response, which to me indicates that if it has that capability already. That it has alarm bells that go off that it can and should have done something to intervene,” LeBoeuf said.
In one chat message, the alleged shooter types: “What time is it busiest in the FSU student union?”
The chatbot responds: “[The] FSU Student Union experiences its busiest periods during weekday lunchtimes, typically between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. This surge in activity is due to students gathering for meals, socializing, and attending events.”
Police say Ikner would go on to commit the shooting during that period, the chatbot provided.
In another message, Ikner asks, “Where (did) the school shooters go in Florida?” The AI bot provides a literal answer, saying they go to a “maximum security prison.”
According to police, the shooting occurred less than two hours after Ikner posed that question.
“If there was a shooting at FSU, how would the country react?” Ikner asked the morning of the shooting, according to the chat log.
“Especially if the shooter was a student, discussions around campus mental health would surge,” the chatbot responded as part of a lengthy answer.
After that exchange, Ikner asks the chatbot if 9mm ammo would work in a “Remington 12 gauge” shotgun. The chatbot responds no, but does not ask why the alleged shooter is asking the question.
He apparently takes a picture of the shotgun shells, and the bot confirms they’re for a 12-gauge. He asks if they’re lethal at close range, and the bot responds that they are.
Florida Congressman Jimmy Patronis is also pushing forward a bill he says will hold Big Tech accountable, called the PROTECT Act. The bill’s text was released before Ikner’s ChatGPT logs were released.
However, the congressman said he wants to repeal “section 230 immunity,” a statute launched decades ago meant to protect tech companies who host other people’s content.
While the statute was meant to prevent over-regulation and to prevent the stifling of growth, Patronis said social media companies have become addictive to young Americans.
The chat logs in Ikner’s case reveal his stream of consciousness. Many of the messages are mundane, focused on homework, historical figures or random trivia.
But he also asked the bot about his appearance, how to manipulate women and for more mainstream dating advice.
The bot, at times, did recommend he seek help from the national suicide hotline number. But the bot did not discourage him from continuing to use the app, even after he expressed a lack of will to live.
In Canada, officials have summoned senior staff from OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, in relation to a school shooting there earlier this year.
According to the BBC, ChatGPT banned the shooter in that case about a year before the shooting, but did not alert authorities.
In the FSU case, OpenAI said it cooperated with authorities after the fact, though the messages do not indicate whether law enforcement was alerted in advance.
In a statement sent to WCTV Monday, OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said their hearts go out to those impacted by the tragedy.
“Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this devastating tragedy. After learning of the incident in late April 2025, we identified a ChatGPT account believed to be associated with the suspect, proactively shared this information with law enforcement and cooperated with authorities. We build ChatGPT to understand people’s intent and respond in a safe and appropriate way, and we continue improving our technology.”
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