{"id":240621,"date":"2026-04-21T17:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/240621\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T17:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:28:07","slug":"florida-launches-criminal-investigation-into-chatgpt-fueled-by-fsu-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/240621\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida launches \u2018criminal investigation\u2019 into ChatGPT, fueled by FSU shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">TALLAHASSEE, Florida \u2014 Florida escalated its dispute with OpenAI and the ChatGPT tool Tuesday as the state pursues potential criminal charges tied to the popular bot\u2019s role in a deadly campus shooting at Florida State University last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">State Attorney General James Uthmeier said Florida\u2019s OpenAI probe is expanding because a \u201ccriminal investigation is necessary\u201d after state prosecutors determined ChatGPT \u201coffered significant advice\u201d to the suspected FSU shooter. The state issued subpoenas to the tech firm Tuesday, Uthmeier said, indicating \u201clegal action\u201d is expected to come soon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIf this were a person on the other end of the screen, we would be charging them with murder,\u201d Uthmeier said during an event in Tampa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Uthmeier, a Republican appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, earlier this month <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/04\/09\/florida-uthmeier-openai-chatgpt-probe-00865417\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:signaled Florida would investigate OpenAI and ChatGPT;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;signaled Florida would investigate OpenAI and ChatGPT&quot;}\" class=\"link \">signaled Florida would investigate OpenAI and ChatGPT<\/a> over public safety and national security concerns. The attorney general elaborated on the probe Tuesday, explaining that Florida now is pursuing criminal and civil investigations into OpenAI surrounding the FSU shooting, child sex abuse material and the encouragement of suicide and self-harm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">New revelations from the FSU shooting, though, are expected to a play a central role in Florida\u2019s criminal investigation into OpenAI.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The suspected FSU gunman \u2014 Phoenix Ikner, who was a 20-year-old student during the April 2025 shooting \u2014 allegedly communicated frequently with the ChatGPT bot about a campus attack. Specifically, he allegedly asked for detailed information about operating guns and ammo, how the country might react and where he could find the most students. Ikner is accused of killing two people at FSU and wounding six others and awaits trial on multiple charges of murder and attempted murder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cJust because this is a chatbot in AI does not mean that there is not criminal culpability,\u201d Uthmeier said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cSo, we are going to look at who knew what, designed what, or should have done what. And if it is clear that individuals knew that this type of dangerous behavior might take place, that these types of unfortunate tragic events might take place, and nevertheless still turned to profits, still allowed this business to operate, then people need to be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">To that end, Uthmeier\u2019s office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myfloridalegal.com\/newsrelease\/attorney-general-james-uthmeier-launches-criminal-investigation-openai-chatgpt\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:subpoenaed OpenAI for scores of records;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;subpoenaed OpenAI for scores of records&quot;}\" class=\"link \">subpoenaed OpenAI for scores of records<\/a>, including policies and training materials over the years regarding threats of self-harm or harm to others, along with how the company cooperates with law enforcement. Uthmeier also wants to know how OpenAI responded to the FSU shooting and more about the company\u2019s executives and their roles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Officials with OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but previously said the company will cooperate with Uthmeier\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The attorney general\u2019s inquiry into a top generative AI chatbot is the latest attempt by Florida to influence tech policy at the state level. DeSantis has led the charge in seeking to regulate the technology during his last year in office and recently called for lawmakers to reconsider child and consumer AI protections in a special lawmaking session. His proposals, however, so far have failed to gain traction largely due to Florida House leaders supporting the Trump administration\u2019s call for a nationwide AI framework.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Florida \u2014 Florida escalated its dispute with OpenAI and the ChatGPT tool Tuesday as the state pursues&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1080,4063,28,30,29,1422,667,4260,412,232],"class_list":["post-240621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-criminal-charges","tag-criminal-investigation","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-state-university","tag-investigation","tag-james-uthmeier","tag-ron-desantis","tag-tallahassee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240621","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=240621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}