JAKARTA - OpenAI is facing a criminal investigation in the United States regarding the alleged role of its chatbot technology, ChatGPT, in a mass shooting that killed two people on the Florida State University campus last year.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said Tuesday (local time) that his office had conducted an initial review and found enough basis to raise the case to the criminal investigation stage.
"Our review results show that a criminal investigation is necessary. ChatGPT provided significant advice to the perpetrator before committing the heinous act," said Uthmeier.
The suspect in this case is Phoenix Ikner, a 20-year-old student who is currently in custody awaiting trial.
According to Uthmeier, the chatbot is suspected of providing guidance on types of weapons and ammunition, as well as times and locations that allow perpetrators to find larger crowds in campus areas.
"If the person behind the scenes is a human, we will prosecute them with murder," Uthmeier said, adding that Florida law allows those who help or encourage a crime to be considered the main perpetrator.
However, OpenAI denied involvement. In its statement, the company confirmed that ChatGPT was not responsible for the criminal act.
"ChatGPT does not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity. In this case, the chatbot only provides factual responses that are widely available on the internet," said an OpenAI spokesperson.
The company also stated that it had cooperated with law enforcement and proactively handed over account data that was suspected to be related to the suspect.
This case is the first time that OpenAI has faced a criminal investigation related to the use of ChatGPT by individuals who were later suspected of committing serious crimes. This situation opens a new chapter in the global debate on the limits of the legal responsibility of technology companies for the use of their products.
OpenAI was founded by Sam Altman and has become widely known since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, which is now one of the most widely used AI tools in the world.
Pressure on the AI industry has also increased in recent months. A coalition of attorneys general from 42 states in the US had previously sent a letter to a number of technology companies, including OpenAI, to urge stricter security testing and risk warnings to users.
Another case also reinforces these concerns. Earlier this year, a shooting incident in Canada that killed nine people was also reported to have involved the use of AI by the perpetrator. OpenAI admitted to closing the related account, but did not report the case to the police at that time.
This development places the artificial intelligence industry at a crucial crossroads: between rapid innovation and increasingly strict legal accountability demands. If previously AI was seen as a neutral tool, now the big question is - to what extent are the creators responsible?
Amid a surge in the adoption of AI technology, this case could set an important precedent that will determine the direction of global regulation going forward.
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