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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on Tuesday, April 21, that the Office of Statewide Prosecution has launched a criminal investigation into the role OpenAI and the company’s artificial intelligence tool, ChatGPT, played in last year’s deadly Florida State University shooting.
“Florida is leading the way in cracking down on AI’s use in criminal behavior, and if ChatGPT were a person, it would be facing charges for murder,” said Uthmeier. “This criminal investigation will determine whether OpenAI bears criminal responsibility for ChatGPT’s actions in the shooting at Florida State University last year.”
ChatGPT: Aiding and Abetting?
According to Uthmeier, ChatGPT “offered significant advice” to gunman Phoenix Ikner before he opened fire on FSU’s campus in April 2025, killing two and injuring six. Authorities reviewed several exchanges between Ikner and the chatbot, including one in which the suspect requested information on ammunition and how a firearm will perform at short range.
Florida law states that anyone who aids, abets, or counsels any criminal offense against the state “is a principal in the first degree and may be charged, convicted, and punished as such, whether he or she is or is not actually or constructively present at the commission of such offense.”
“My prosecutors have looked at this, and they’ve told me if it was a person on the other end of the screen, we would be charging them with murder,” Uthmeier told reporters. His office issued subpoenas to OpenAI to obtain information on the company’s internal policies and training materials, specifically relating to user threats of harm and cooperation with law enforcement. Authorities are also seeking a list of executives, directors, department heads, and senior managers of OpenAI, and all employees of ChatGPT.
The announcement comes just weeks after Uthmeier revealed a civil investigation into OpenAI over the FSU shooting, teen suicide, and child exploitative material. The civil probe will continue, he noted.
"We are going to look at who knew what, designed what, or should have done what," Uthmeier said. "And if it is clear that individuals knew that this type of dangerous behavior might take place, that these types of unfortunate, tragic events might take place, and nevertheless still turned to profit, still allowed this business to operate, then people need to be held accountable."
OpenAI Responds
OpenAI said in a statement that neither the company nor its AI chatbot is responsible for the deadly shooting:
“Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime. 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.”
Earlier this year, in a letter to Canadian officials, OpenAI said it has “taken steps to strengthen our safeguards and made changes to our law enforcement referral protocol for cases involving violent activities” after an alleged shooter asked ChatGPT about a variety of gun violence scenarios before killing eight and injuring dozens in British Columbia. OpenAI also vowed to train its AI models to “respond appropriately when users are in distress or pursuing prohibited behavior, with an emphasis on de-escalation and user safety.”
Speaking with reporters, Uthmeier acknowledged that his decision to pursue a criminal investigation of a company is atypical, but he maintained that it’s justified: “We recognize here with OpenAI we’re venturing into uncharted territory, but we need to know whether or not OpenAI has criminal liability.”
