Florida prosecutor James Uthmeier announced on Tuesday, April 21, the opening of a criminal investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT to shed light on the potential role that the artificial intelligence (AI) interface may have played in a deadly attack in April 2025.
According to information gathered by the prosecutor’s office, the assailant, a student at Florida State University, interacted with ChatGPT before shooting several people on campus, resulting in two deaths and six injuries. During a press conference, James Uthmeier explained that ChatGPT had “provided significant guidance to the shooter before he committed this hateful crime.”
“We would charge it with homicide”
The conversational robot notably made suggestions regarding suitable weapons and ammunition, as well as the best time and locations to target as many people as possible. Based on this information, he said, “My investigators told me that if this thing on the other side of the screen (ChatGPT) were a person, we would charge it with homicide.”
When contacted, OpenAI argued that “ChatGPT was not responsible for this horrible crime” and that the interface was designed to provide “factual responses” to the student’s requests, whose trial is scheduled to begin in October. The group emphasized that they had voluntarily provided data about the assailant after being informed of the attack.
OpenAI stated that they have long been working on strengthening their safeguards to “detect dangerous intent” and “respond appropriately in case of security risks” to individuals. The investigation announced on Tuesday does not prejudge any potential legal actions against OpenAI or its members.
