Florida to open criminal investigation into OpenAI over ChatGPT’s influence on alleged mass shooter

State attorney general said inquiry will look into whether AI tool offered ‘significant advice’ to campus shooting suspect Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Florida’s top prosecutor is to launch a criminal investigation into how the tech company OpenAI and its software tool ChatGPT may influence users’ threats of harm to themselves or others, including whether it “offered significant advice” to a gunman accused of conducting a mass shooting in the state last year. State attorney general James Uthmeier said at a news conference on Tuesday that his office is expanding an examination of OpenAI, saying a “criminal investigation is necessary” and the state had issued subpoenas to the $852bn California-based tech firm. “If this were a person on the other end of the screen, we would be charging them with murder,” Uthmeier said during an event in Tampa. Earlier this month, Uthmeier, an appointee of Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, announced an investigation into the artificial intelligence company over potential national security and safety concerns. But the issuing of subpoenas to OpenAI is a marked escalation that comes a