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In April 2025, a student opened fire on the campus of Florida State University, killing two and wounding seven.
Investigators have since discovered that the suspect, 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, conducted extremely disturbing conversations with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, repeatedly asking about Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and outright inquiring how the country would “react” if “there was a shooting at FSU.”
Ikner also asked the chatbot what weapon and ammo to use, and where to find the most people to kill on the university’s campus. Minutes before the shooting, he even asked the bot how to turn of the safety switch on his weapon.
The chatbot’s apparent role in the massacre has attracted official scrutiny. Earlier this month, Florida’s attorney general James Uthmeier announced his office was investigating OpenAI over the deadly shooting and the role the chatbot played.
Now the state is ramping up the pressure considerably by opening a criminal probe into the AI company as well. As Bloomberg reports, officials sent OpenAI criminal subpoenas, setting a new precedent for efforts to hold AI companies accountable following a series of suicides and murder linked to the bots.
It appears to be the first time the ChatGPT maker has come under criminal investigation over the use of its chatbot by somebody who committed a crime, as the BBC points out.
“If that bot were a person they’d be charged with a principal in first degree murder,” Uthmeier told reporters during a Tuesday press conference.
“Our review has revealed that a criminal investigation is necessary,” he added. “ChatGPT offered significant advice to this shooter before he committed such heinous crimes.”
OpenAI continues to deny it had anything to do with the shooting.
“Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,” spokeswoman Kate Waters told Bloomberg in a statement. “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.”
OpenAI is already facing a lawsuit following a separate mass shooting. In February, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed two family members, five children, and a teacher at a school in British Columbia, before taking her own life.
Investigators found that OpenAI had flagged Van Rootselaar’s account internally for disturbing conversations, but never notified law enforcement.
During this week’s press conference, Uthmeier revealed that the state may eventually charge individual OpenAI workers.
“Technology is supposed to help mankind, it’s supposed to support mankind,” he said. “Not end it.”
More on the incidents: Why Do ChatGPT Users Keep Committing Mass Shootings?
I’m a senior editor at Futurism, where I edit and write about NASA and the private space sector, as well as topics ranging from SETI and artificial intelligence to tech and medical policy.
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