OpenAI Gets Florida Criminal Probe Over Killer Using ChatGPT (1)

Florida is sending criminal subpoenas to OpenAI, opening a novel investigation into whether a chatbot could be criminally liable for use in a mass shooting.

The announcement came 11 days after statewide prosecutors said they were probing a shooter’s use of ChatGPT to plan and carry out an attack last spring at Florida State University that killed two people.

“If that bot were a person they’d be charged with a principal in first degree murder,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) said during a Tuesday press conference.

OpenAI issued a statement saying the company shared information from the shooter’s ChatGPT account with prosecutors and continues to “cooperate with authorities.”

“Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,” OpenAI spokeswoman Kate Waters said.

The shooter sought advice from ChatGPT on what weapon to use, what ammo to fire, and where he could find the most people to kill on campus, Uthmeier said.

The state is demanding police and chatbot training materials that touch on threats to users, threats to others, and company policies over cooperation with law enforcement, as well as information from the shooter. Subpoenas will be sent today, but the Florida Attorney General’s office said the documents weren’t available yet.

“Technology is supposed to help mankind, it’s supposed to support mankind. Not end it,” Uthmeier said, adding that the state will look to potentially charge individuals at OpenAI depending on what they find.

Waters called ChatGPT a “general-purpose tool” used by millions of people every day.

“In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity,” she said.