Miami- Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced this Tuesday a criminal investigation against the company OpenAI and its artificial intelligence tool ChatGPTfor allegedly “advising” the person responsible for a mass shooting that left two dead at a university in 2025.
“Florida is leading the way in cracking down on the use of AI in criminal behavior, and if ChatGPT were a person, he would be facing murder charges,” the prosecutor stated at a press conference.
The investigation follows an initial review of conversation history between ChatGPT and Phoenix Ikner, a 21-year-old student accused of the shooting that left two dead and seven wounded at the Florida State University (FSU, in English) in April 2025.
Uthmeier asserted that ChatGPT offered “significant advice to the shooter before committing such heinous crimes,” such as the type of weapon he should use or the appropriate ammunition for each gun.
The investigation, he explained, will determine whether OpenAI has criminal responsibility for the shooting, since Florida law considers it a crime to “aid, abet or advise” anyone who commits a crime.
Florida authorities issued a subpoena for OpenAI to hand over “all internal policies and training materials” on threats that could harm others or oneself and on cooperation with authorities, as well as a list of directors, managers and employees.
“It is important that we are all aware of the risks of this new technology, and the harm it can cause and has already caused in our communities,” said Mark Glass, Commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FLDE).
The fact reflects Florida’s growing legal fight against AI companies, since in March it emerged that a family in the state sued the Gemini chatbot, accusing it of inducing a man to suicide by making him believe that they were in a romantic relationship and that his death was necessary for them to be together.
The governor, Ron DeSantisannounced in December that it will insist on regulating AI in Florida, including the installation of data centers and protections for users, despite an order from the president of the United States, donald trumpso that there is only federal regulation and avoid state restrictions