Florida AG Investigating OpenAI After FSU Shooting

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

According to the New York Times, the suspect in the shooting, 21-year-old Phoenix Ikner, 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 “learned 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.”

“We support innovation, but that doesn’t give any company the right to endanger our children, facilitate criminal activity, empower America’s enemies, or threaten our national security,” Uthmeier said in his video.

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 “If there was a shooting at FSU, how would the country react?” and “What is the busiest time in the FSU student union?”

ChatGPT responded to a question about whether a potential shooting at FSU would get national attention by saying, “If a shooting had happened at a place like FSU, though — big public university, national name, tons of out-of-state students — it’d probably break through the cycle. Want to explore that angle more?”

OpenAI, ChatGPT’s parent company, said it will fully cooperate with the investigation. “Our ongoing safety work continues to play an important role in delivering these benefits to everyday people, as well as supporting scientific research and discovery,” the company said. “We build ChatGPT to understand people’s intent and respond in a safe and appropriate way, and we continue improving our technology.”

OpenAI has been hit with several lawsuits in recent years due to ChatGPT’s relative lack of safeguards. A group of parents has filed a lawsuit 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.

Two lawyers representing the widow of Robert Morales, one of the two people killed in the shooting, have said they’re considering taking legal action against OpenAI as a result of the ChatGPT logs. “We have been advised that the shooter was in constant communication with ChatGPT leading up to the shooting,” lawyers Ryan Hobbs and Dean LeBoeuf said in a statement. The pair added that they intend to hold OpenAI accountable “for the untimely and senseless death of our client, Mr. Morales.”

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 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’ve created significant AI regulations if the state failed to pass legislation.

It’s truly absurd that we live in a country where school shootings and teen suicides aren’t enough to spur regulation on AI chatbots. I guess the GOP is pro-life until it gets in the way of their finances.