Florida\u2019s attorney general said his office was issuing subpoenas to OpenAI on Tuesday morning, seeking information about how the leading AI company approaches user threats of harm to themselves and to others.<\/p>\n
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The subpoenas are part of a new criminal investigation into the company, James Uthmeier said in a press conference. The actions are an escalation from his previously announced probe of the artificial intelligence company, which he said will continue as a civil investigation alongside the newly announced criminal investigation. <\/p>\n
On April 9, Uthmeier announced he would launch an investigation<\/a> into OpenAI and its ChatGPT tool over national security and safety concerns. Among other concerns, he is investigating whether ChatGPT provided any planning assistance<\/a> to the alleged gunman in the Florida State University mass shooting that left two people dead in April last year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been looking into the recent FSU shooting, and that shooter\u2019s communications with ChatGPT,\u201d Uthmeier said in a press conference Tuesday morning. \u201cOur review of that communication has revealed that a criminal investigation is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cChatGPT offered significant advice to the shooter before he committed such heinous crimes,\u201d Uthmeier said, adding \u201cthat the chatbot advised the shooter on what type of gun to use, on which ammo went with which gun, on whether or not a gun would be useful in short range.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIf this were a person on the other side of the screen, we would be charging them with murder,\u201d Uthmeier said. \u201cWe cannot have AI bots that are advising others on how to kill others.\u201d<\/p>\n Uthmeier announced his office was issuing subpoenas seeking information about OpenAI\u2019s policies and internal training materials regarding user threats of harm to themselves and others from March 2024 until this month. The subpoenas will also request information from the same time frame on all policies and internal training materials regarding how OpenAI cooperates with and reports crime to law enforcement agencies. <\/p>\n In addition, the subpoenas seek an organizational chart of OpenAI\u2019s leaders and senior managers, as well as a list of all employees working on ChatGPT. <\/p>\n In a statement to NBC News in early April, an OpenAI spokesperson 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 \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, noting that more than 900 million people use ChatGPT each week. The company did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Tuesday\u2019s developments.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to look at who knew what, designed what, or should have done what,\u201d Uthmeier said in the Tuesday press conference from behind a lectern that said \u201cInvestigating OpenAI.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a big believer in limited government. I believe government should only interfere in business activities when you have significant harm to our people,\u201d he added. \u201cThis is that.\u201d<\/p>\n The suspect in the FSU shooting, 21-year-old Phoenix Ikner, faces multiple charges related to last year\u2019s shooting that killed Robert Morales and Tiru Chabba. According to court documents seen by NBC News<\/a>, Ikner was exchanging messages with ChatGPT in the minutes before the shooting, asking questions like: \u201cWhat time is it the busiest in the FSU student union?\u201d and \u201cIf there was a shooting at FSU, how would the country react?\u201d<\/p>\n Attorneys for the family of one of the victims indicated in early April that they were preparing to file charges against OpenAI. \u201cWe have been advised that the shooter was in constant communication with ChatGPT leading up to the shooting,\u201d said Ryan Hobbs, an attorney for Morales\u2019 family. \u201cWe also have reason to believe that ChatGPT may have advised the shooter how to commit these heinous crimes. We will therefore file suit against ChatGPT and its ownership structure very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Along with Uthmeier, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has emerged as an outspoken critic of large AI corporations<\/a> and their freewheeling approach to AI development and deployment. <\/p>\n In December, DeSantis proposed an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights for American citizens, focusing on \u201cdata privacy, parental controls, consumer protections, and restrictions on AI use of an individual\u2019s name, image or likeness without consent,\u201d according to the bill\u2019s announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s attorney general said his office was issuing subpoenas to OpenAI on Tuesday morning, seeking information about how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-597804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"US-NEWS-FLA-AG-PUBLIC-CORRUPTION-UNIT-FL\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/260409-Uthmeier-Fla-AG-aa-1255-871465.jpg\")
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier speaks during a news conference at Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth, in 2025.Amy Beth Bennett \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel \/ Tribune News Service via Getty Images<\/p>\n