MIAMI: Authorities in the US state of Florida have launched a criminal investigation into whether the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT played a role in a deadly mass shooting at a university, officials said on Tuesday.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said the probe was opened after prosecutors reviewed exchanges between the gunman and the chatbot prior to the attack at Florida State University last year.
“If ChatGPT were a person, it would be facing charges for murder,” Uthmeier said in a statement.
Uthmeier said his office had issued subpoenas to OpenAI, seeking details about how the company handles user threats of harm to themselves or others.
The subpoenas request internal policies, training materials and records from March 2024 to the present on how the company responds to such threats and cooperates with law enforcement.
They also seek organisational details, including an internal chart of senior leadership and a list of employees working on ChatGPT.
The criminal probe marks an escalation of an earlier civil investigation announced on April 9 into potential national security and safety concerns linked to the chatbot.
“We have been looking into the recent FSU shooting, and that shooter’s communications with ChatGPT,” Uthmeier said at a press conference.
“Our review of that communication has revealed that a criminal investigation is necessary.”
Uthmeier alleged that ChatGPT had provided “significant advice” to the gunman before the attack.
He said the chatbot gave guidance on weapons and ammunition, including what type of gun to use and whether certain firearms would be effective at short range.
“If this were a person on the other side of the screen, we would be charging them with murder,” he said.
“We cannot have AI bots that are advising others on how to kill others.”
He added that the investigation would examine whether the company or its employees should be held accountable.
“We are going to look at who knew what, designed what, or should have done what,” he said.
In a statement to NBC News, OpenAI spokesperson Kate Waters rejected the allegations.
“Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,” she said.
“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 added.
