Florida has escalated its investigation into OpenAI from a civil inquiry into a criminal probe after reviewing messages prosecutors say were exchanged between ChatGPT and Phoenix Ikner, the Florida State University student accused of killing two people and injuring six others in a campus shooting last year.
Attorney General James Uthmeier said the shift followed a review of chats between the suspect and ChatGPT. He said the messages suggested ChatGPT “offered significant advice to the shooter,” including exchanges about a gun’s power at short range, ammunition choice, how the country would react to a shooting at Florida State, and when the student union would be busiest.
He said prosecutors concluded that “if it was a person on the other end of the screen, we would be charging them with murder.” Florida’s office had first announced the OpenAI probe on April 9.
Ikner, then 20, opened fire near FSU’s student union around lunchtime on April 17, 2025, killing two men and wounding six others before officers shot and wounded him within roughly four minutes. The victims were later identified as Robert Morales, a university dining coordinator, and Tiru Chabba, an Aramark executive.
The suspect now faces two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted first-degree murder, according to prior AP reporting. He remained jailed without bond, and later coverage indicated he had been booked into jail after leaving the hospital.
Reports say he used his stepmother’s former service weapon, and authorities said a shotgun was also present.
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What appears to be driving the escalation is the volume and timing of the chatbot evidence. The materials provided indicate prosecutors gathered more than 200 messages between Ikner and ChatGPT.
Uthmeier has acknowledged that OpenAI is a company, not a person, and that trying to establish criminal culpability would push into novel territory. His office is reportedly examining whether identifiable human beings involved in the chatbot’s design, management, or operation could bear responsibility.
The state is not dropping the civil side. Reporting indicates Florida will continue its civil investigation into OpenAI’s potential liability while the criminal investigation proceeds.
OpenAI had said earlier this month that it would cooperate with the attorney general’s office. In a statement, the company said it builds ChatGPT to understand user intent and respond in a safe and appropriate way, while continuing to improve the technology.
It was then reported on April 9 that Florida’s initial probe was broader than the FSU case alone, with Uthmeier also invoking child exploitation, suicide encouragement, and national security concerns tied to AI systems.
The move sharply raises the legal stakes for OpenAI as state officials test whether chatbot conduct can be treated as more than a product-liability issue.
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