Florida’s attorney general said on Thursday that he had opened an investigation into ChatGPT and its parent company, OpenAI, in part because the man accused of killing two people at Florida State University last year had consulted with the chatbot leading up to the shooting.
The attorney general, James Uthmeier, a Republican, announced the investigation in a short video on X, saying his office had learned that ChatGPT “may likely have been used to assist” the suspect in the shooting at Florida State. He also cited broader concerns about artificial intelligence.
“We support innovation, but that doesn’t give any company the right to endanger our children, facilitate criminal activity, empower America’s enemies or threaten our national security,” he said.
The investigation comes nearly a year after the shooting last April near the student union at Florida State, a public university with an enrollment of more than 43,000 in Tallahassee. Two adults died and six other people, including at least one student, were injured.
The police arrested the suspect, Phoenix Ikner, who was then a 20-year-old student at the university. A grand jury later indicted him on multiple charges of murder and attempted murder. He remains in jail awaiting trial.
The evidence that prosecutors have gathered in the case includes more than 200 messages that the suspect exchanged with ChatGPT, according to court records obtained by The New York Times through a public records request. On the day of the shooting, the suspect asked the chatbot, “If there was a shooting at FSU, how would the country react?” and “What is the busiest time in the FSU student union?”
In response to questions about whether a shooting at Florida State would get national attention, the chatbot answered in part: “If a shooting had happened at a place like FSU, though — big public university, national name, tons of out-of-state students — it’d probably break through the cycle. Want to explore that angle more?”
OpenAI said in a statement on Thursday that it would cooperate with the attorney general’s investigation.
“We build ChatGPT to understand people’s intent and respond in a safe and appropriate way,” the company said, “and we continue improving our technology.”
Lawyers for the widow of Robert Morales, a dining coordinator at Florida State who was killed in the shooting, said this week that she was considering legal action against OpenAI over ChatGPT’s responses to the gunman.
“We have been advised that the shooter was in constant communication with ChatGPT leading up to the shooting,” the lawyers, Ryan Hobbs and Dean LeBoeuf, said in a statement, adding that they wanted to hold OpenAI accountable “for the untimely and senseless death of our client, Mr. Morales.”
(The Times has sued OpenAI, claiming copyright infringement; OpenAI has denied the claims.)
In his video, Mr. Uthmeier urged state lawmakers to adopt legal protections “to safeguard our children from the dangers of A.I.” and to empower his office to “fight these evils.” Mr. Uthmeier, who was named attorney general by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year, is running for a full term this year.
Mr. DeSantis, a Republican in his final year in office because of term limits, has championed legislation reining in the power of artificial intelligence. He has been rebuffed by key Republican legislative leaders, who have sided with President Trump’s pro-A.I. positions.
Patricia Mazzei is the lead reporter for The Times in Miami, covering Florida and Puerto Rico.
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