Florida’s attorney general on Tuesday (local time) said that his office is issuing subpoenas to OpenAI, requesting information on how the company handles user threats of harm to themselves or others, NBC reported.
James Uthmeier, Florida’s attorney general, in a press conference, noted that the subpoenas are part of a new criminal probe against the company and the actions mark an escalation from his previously announced probe of the Sam Altman-led AI company. According to Uthmeier, the probe will continue as a civil investigation alongside the newly announced criminal investigation.
Uthmeier announced the launch of a probe against OpenAI
Earlier this month, the Florida attorney general announced to launch an investigation into OpenAI and its ChatGPT tool, citing national security and safety concerns.
Apart from other concerns, Uthmeier is also probing whether OpenAI’s chat tool provided any assistance in terms of planning to the alleged gunman who carried out the mass shooting at Florida State University. The incident occurred in April last year and left two dead.
ChatGPT assisted shooter who killed two at FSU: Uthmeier
In a press conference, he said, “We have been looking into the recent FSU shooting, and that shooter’s communications with ChatGPT,” and added, “Our review of that communication has revealed that a criminal investigation is necessary.”
Florida’s attorney general went on to say that OpenAI’s Chat tool allegedly offered significant advice to the shooter before he committed such “heinous crimes”, and added, ‘the chatbot advised the shooter on what type of gun to use, on which ammo went with which gun, on whether or not a gun would be useful in short range.”
He elaborated that if this were a person on the other end of the screen, they would have been charged with murder, and that there cannot be an AI bot that assists people on how to kill others.
Florida attorney general’s office issues subpoenas
The attorney general added that his office is now issuing subpoenas and seeking information regarding the AI company’s policies and internal training materials related to user threats of harm to themselves and others from March 2024 to April 2026. The subpoenas will also seek information from the same time frame on all policies and internal training materials as to how the company cooperates with and reports crime to law enforcement agencies.
Additionally, the subpoenas will also seek the leading AI company’s organisational chart of its leaders and senior managers, along with a list of all employees working on ChatGPT.
This is a developing story. More details awaited.
