{"id":249556,"date":"2026-04-28T12:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/249556\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T12:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:52:08","slug":"florida-ag-uthmeier-expands-criminal-ai-investigation-to-usf-slayings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/249556\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida AG Uthmeier expands criminal AI investigation to USF slayings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Days after Tampa prosecutors revealed that a suspected murderer consulted ChatGPT about placing human remains in a dumpster, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Monday that he\u2019s adding the case to his landmark criminal investigation into OpenAI.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are expanding our criminal investigation into OpenAI to include the USF murders after learning the primary suspect used ChatGPT,\u201d Uthmeier announced on social media. He referred to the high-profile murders of two University of South Florida doctoral students, 27-year-old Bangladeshi friends Zimal Limon and Nahida Bristy, reported missing on April 16.<\/p>\n<p>Limon\u2019s roommate, Hisham Abugharbieh, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder with a weapon and a host of related felonies, including false imprisonment and unlawfully holding or moving a dead body.<\/p>\n<p>New court documents, filed to prevent Abugharbieh\u2019s release on bail, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/news\/crime\/2026\/04\/26\/usf-murder-case-missing-students\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reveal snippets<\/a> of murder-related questions between the 26-year-old and the AI chatbot.<\/p>\n<p>These conversations, spanning three days before the disappearances to hours before Limon\u2019s body was discovered, include inquiries about putting a human in a trash bag, whether a person could survive a \u201csniper bullet to the head,\u201d and whether a car\u2019s vehicle identification number can be changed.<\/p>\n<p>ALSO READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wusf.org\/courts-law\/2026-04-27\/roommate-accused-murder-missing-usf-students-ask-chatgpt-disposal-body\" class=\"Link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Affidavit reveals suspect&#8217;s timeline, grisly details surrounding slayings of USF students<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Other messages ask whether \u201ccars are checked\u201d at a state park in the early morning hours when the students\u2019 disappeared, and, later: \u201cwill my neighbors hear my gun\u201d and \u201cwhat does missing endangered adult mean.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The exchanges are remarkable, both in nature and similarity to another Florida case combed through by Uthmeier in his <a href=\"https:\/\/floridaphoenix.com\/2026\/04\/21\/uthmeier-investigating-whether-chatgpt-is-criminally-liable-for-fsu-shooting\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">first-of-its-kind<\/a> probe into OpenAI. Last week, the AG subpoenaed the multibillion-dollar company over its potential involvement in the mass shooting at Florida State University last April.<\/p>\n<p>Criminal bot?The morning of that attack, accused shooter Phoenix Ikner <a href=\"https:\/\/floridaphoenix.com\/2026\/04\/15\/alleged-fsu-shooter-consulted-chatgpt-on-when-to-attack-sexual-scenarios-with-a-minor\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">asked ChatGPT<\/a> how to fire his guns, the busiest times on campus, and how many murdered victims are needed to draw national media attention.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation is the first attempt in the nation to hold AI company executives or program designers criminally accountable for the actions of generative software. Uthmeier\u2019s office is still weighing whether to directly subpoena OpenAI \u2014 as it did in the FSU case \u2014 or to squarely involve itself in the Hillsborough case.<\/p>\n<p>Limon\u2019s body was found in a trash bag on the Howard Franklin Bridge on April 24. Human remains believed to be Bristy were found Sunday night in a Tampa waterway.<\/p>\n<p>Florida lawmakers will meet this week to debate <a href=\"https:\/\/floridaphoenix.com\/2026\/04\/20\/floridas-ai-bill-of-rights-what-happened-whats-in-it-and-whats-next\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">increased guardrails<\/a> for artificial intelligence systems used in the Sunshine State. These regulations would include a ban on companion chatbots for minors, requiring bots to repeatedly remind users that they aren\u2019t human, and provide public record exemptions in certain AI investigations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/floridaphoenix.com\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Florida Phoenix<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wusf.org\/courts-law\/2026-04-28\/mailto:info@floridaphoenix.com\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">info@floridaphoenix.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Days after Tampa prosecutors revealed that a suspected murderer consulted ChatGPT about placing human remains in a dumpster,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-249556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249556","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=249556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}