TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is calling for regulation of artificial intelligence after Florida lawmakers declined to take up AI legislation during a special session, and he is pointing to recent crimes he says involved the use of AI tools.

Lawmakers also refused to spend time discussing so-called “medical freedom” during the session.

In a post on X, Uthmeier argued that AI should not be allowed to be misused, writing, “… we cannot allow it to be abused to hurt our children. We recently discovered that in the tragic Florida State University shooting the murderer consulted Chat GPT open AI for advice before carrying out this heinous act. This week, today I announced a criminal investigation into Open AI over the murders of two USF Students where the primary suspect consulted Chat GPT before this tragedy took place.”

Uthmeier said the two incidents are “only the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to connections between AI and deadly crimes.

While some might expect AI companies to resist regulation, a Tallahassee-based AI company said it welcomes lawmakers taking up the issue.

Racaria Burgess of Phusion AI called the now-ended special session a “golden opportunity” for people from different backgrounds to discuss ways to maintain safety with artificial intelligence and big tech.

“…the community itself starts with our laws, our legislation, the people that’s governing us. So if they’re not having these conversations and they are not talking about these things I feel like that takes away from even the community to be able to look at for their guidance, and look for their support in terms of safety for our children and guardrails and even enforceing certain regulations for these companies,” Burgess said.

Burgess said AI and big tech companies must be vetted before people use their products, and she said she looks forward to having that conversation with lawmakers when they are ready.

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Fox 49 News contacted the attorney general’s office for an interview but did not receive a response and was directed to Uthmeier’s social media accounts for comment.