Florida prosecutor James Uthmeier announced on Tuesday, April 21, the opening of a criminal investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT, to shed light on the 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, exchanged messages 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 “given significant guidance to the shooter before he committed this hateful crime.”
“We would charge it with murder”
The conversational robot notably made suggestions about 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 that thing on the other side of the screen (ChatGPT) was a person, we would charge it with murder.”
When approached, OpenAI argued that “ChatGPT was not responsible for this awful crime” and that the interface was designed to provide “factual responses” to the student’s requests, whose trial is set to begin in October. The group emphasized that they voluntarily provided data about the assailant after being informed of the attack.
OpenAI stated that they have long been working to strengthen their safeguards to “detect dangerous intent” and “respond appropriately in case of security risks” to individuals. The investigation announced on Tuesday does not preempt any potential charges against OpenAI or its members.
