OpenAI Faces Criminal Probe Over FSU Shooting

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Florida has launched a criminal investigation into OpenAI (OPENAI) over the role its AI model ChatGPT possibly played in a deadly shooting at a state university last year. The probe followed prosecutors’ initial review of the chat logs between ChatGPT and Phoenix Ikner, who opened fire at Florida State University last April, killing two people and injuring six others.

The allegations: “If ChatGPT were a person, it would be facing charges for murder,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a statement. “This criminal investigation will determine whether OpenAI bears criminal responsibility for ChatGPT’s actions in the shooting.” In a press conference, Uthmeier said ChatGPT offered “significant advice” to the gunman before the shooting on “what type of gun to use, which ammo went with which gun, whether or not a gun would be useful in short range.” He added that ChatGPT “advised the shooter on what time of day would be appropriate for the shooting to interact with more people and where on campus would be the place to encounter a higher population.”

Dig deeper: Florida law states that anyone who aids, abets, or counsels someone in the commission of a crime, and that crime is committed or attempted, may be considered a principal to the crime, Uthmeier noted. The state issued subpoenas to OpenAI (OPENAI) for information on its policies and internal training materials regarding user threats of harm to themselves and others as well as cooperation with law enforcement. An OpenAI spokesperson said ChatGPT was not responsible for the crime. “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,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the media.

Bigger picture: This is not the first time that ChatGPT has been implicated in a mass shooting. OpenAI is already facing a civil lawsuit over ChatGPT’s possible role in a shooting that killed eight people in British Columbia, Canada earlier this year. The company banned the account of the shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, as she’d described scenarios involving gun violence to ChatGPT. Employees at the company considered alerting law enforcement, but ultimately decided not to do so. The family of a girl critically injured in the shooting sued OpenAI for failing to alert authorities, claiming that the firm had “specific knowledge of the shooter utilizing ChatGPT to plan a mass casualty event.”

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