{"id":230892,"date":"2026-04-14T07:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T07:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230892\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T07:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T07:18:17","slug":"florida-ag-investigating-openai-after-fsu-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230892\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida AG Investigating OpenAI After FSU Shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"InSource: SOPA Images \/ Getty<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Florida\u2019s Attorney General James Uthmeier announced his office has opened an investigation into OpenAI in relation to a man accused of last year\u2019s shooting at Florida State University (FSU), where two people were killed, and six were injured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the New York Times<\/a>, the suspect in the shooting, 21-year-old Phoenix Ikner,<\/a> was indicted by a grand jury on multiple charges of murder and attempted murder. He is currently in jail awaiting trial. In a video announcing the investigation, Uthmeier said his office \u201clearned that ChatGPT may likely have been used to assist the murderer in the recent mass school shooting at Florida State University that tragically took two lives.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support innovation, but that doesn\u2019t give any company the right to endanger our children, facilitate criminal activity, empower America\u2019s enemies, or threaten our national security,\u201d Uthmeier said in his video.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Prosecutors have gathered over 200 messages Ikner allegedly sent to ChatGPT in the lead-up to the shooting. On the day of the shooting, Ikner asked ChatGPT questions such as \u201cIf there was a shooting at FSU, how would the country react?\u201d and \u201cWhat is the busiest time in the FSU student union?\u201d<\/p>\n

ChatGPT responded to a question about whether a potential shooting at FSU would get national attention by saying, \u201cIf a shooting had happened at a place like FSU, though \u2014 big public university, national name, tons of out-of-state students \u2014 it\u2019d probably break through the cycle. Want to explore that angle more?\u201d<\/p>\n

OpenAI, ChatGPT\u2019s parent company, said it will fully cooperate with the investigation. \u201cOur ongoing safety work continues to play an important role in delivering these benefits to everyday people, as well as supporting scientific research and discovery,\u201d the company said. \u201cWe build ChatGPT to understand people\u2019s intent and respond in a safe and appropriate way, and we continue improving our technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

OpenAI has been hit with several lawsuits in recent years due to ChatGPT\u2019s relative lack of safeguards. A group of parents has filed a lawsuit <\/a>against the AI company after it was found that ChatGPT encouraged their teenage son to commit suicide. The mother of a 40-year-old man who committed suicide after receiving encouragement from ChatGPT has also filed a separate lawsuit<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two lawyers representing the widow of Robert Morales, one of the two people killed in the shooting, have said they\u2019re considering taking legal action against OpenAI as a result of the ChatGPT logs. \u201cWe have been advised that the shooter was in constant communication with ChatGPT leading up to the shooting,\u201d lawyers Ryan Hobbs and Dean LeBoeuf said in a statement. The pair added that they intend to hold OpenAI accountable \u201cfor the untimely and senseless death of our client, Mr. Morales.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has generally been in lockstep with President Donald Trump, AI regulation is one notable area where they differ. Trump has taken a hands-off approach to AI regulation, even signing an order <\/a>in December that essentially punishes any state for taking steps to regulate the technology. As a result of that order, a bill DeSantis supported that would\u2019ve created significant AI regulations<\/a> if the state failed to pass legislation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s truly absurd that we live in a country where school shootings and teen suicides aren\u2019t enough to spur regulation on AI chatbots. I guess the GOP is pro-life until it gets in the way of their finances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:<\/p>\n

Alcorn State University 1st HBCU To Fully Integrate AI<\/a><\/p>\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs Executive Order Regulating AI<\/a><\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\tFlorida Attorney General Opening Investigation Into OpenAI After FSU Shooting<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\twas originally published on
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tnewsone.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Source: SOPA Images \/ Getty On Thursday, Florida\u2019s Attorney General James Uthmeier announced his office has opened an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-230892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}