TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is asking a federal court to throw out a lawsuit that seeks to hold it responsible for the tragic 2025 Florida State University campus shooting.
On Friday, OpenAI filed a Motion to dismiss in response to a lawsuit brought by Tirru Chabba’s family. Chabba was a South Carolina father, one of two men killed in the shooting on April 17, 2025.
According to the complaint, Chabba’s family claims that ChatGPT provided information that helped the accused shooter, Phoenix Ikner, plan the attack. The complaint argues that OpenAI should be held liable for providing factual information to Ikner, including details about firearms and campus activity.
However, OpenAI said that though Chabba’s family “understandably seeks redress for Ikner’s heinous crime,” attempting to hold the company liable for that crime “stretches the bounds of state tort law beyond their breaking point.”
“Ikner’s attack was appalling. But on the facts alleged here, neither understandable sympathy for Plaintiff’s tragic loss nor concerns about new technologies like artifical intelligence allow OpenAI to be held legally responsible for the premeditated crimes that Ikner alone committed.”
The company’s lawsuit went on to say it never encouraged violence, refused to provide illegal instructions and even urged Ikner to seek mental health help. Furthermore, the artificial intelligence company claims it did not know of Ikner’s plans.
“At no point did Ikner tell ChatGPT that he was planning or intended to commit a shooting,” the complaint wrote. “Instead, as is clear from the messages themselves, nearly all of Ikner’s communications were requests for information, and ChatGPT’s responses were consistently factual.”
As far as OpenAI’s claim to urge the suspected shooter to seek mental health help, the company said “On occasions when Ikner indicated that he was struggling with depression, ChatGPT repeatedly encouraged him to ‘talk[] to someone— whether a trusted friend, a pastor, or a therapist,’ and referred him to the 988 crisis line. And ChatGPT repeatedly and consistently condemned violence.”
The company also argued that providing factual, publicly available information is not the same as selling a dangerous product and product liability laws do not apply to information or ideas.
“Just as a search engine or similar research tool could not be deemed a ‘defective product’ because it provided such information, neither can ChatGPT,” the lawsuit wrote.
Multiple killed, injured after shooting at Florida State University:
Additionally, OpenAI asserts in its complaint that it had no legal duty to warn about or prevent Ikner’s alleged crime since there was no special relationship with the victim or knowledge of a specific threat.
Lastly, the company said that holding it liable would violate free speech rights, as the information provided was public and lawful.
OpenAI’s response to the lawsuit of Chabba’s family follows a slew of complaints filed against the artificial intelligence company stemming from the deadly shooting.
Court documents show that the suspected gunman Ikner communicated extensively with ChatGPT in the days, hours and minutes leading up to the tragic shooting, including asking about the busiest times at FSU’s Student Union and how to turn off the safety on a shotgun.
Ikner is accused of opening fire on the campus back in April 2025, killing two and leaving several others injured.
He is expected to stand trial on June 8, 2027, and could face the death penalty if convicted.
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