Florida AG: 'If ChatGPT were a person, it would be facing murder charges'

Authorities are probing whether the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT had any involvement in a mass shooting at a Florida university in the United States.

“If ChatGPT were a person, it would be facing charges for murder,” AFP quoted state Attorney-General James Uthmeier as saying.

The investigation was initiated after prosecutors examined exchanges between ChatGPT and the alleged armed suspect linked to last year’s shooting at Florida State University.

No details of the interaction between the suspect and ChatGPT have been made public.

Uthmeier said Florida law permits anyone who aids, abets, or counsels the commission of a crime to be classified as an “aider and abettor”, carrying the same liability as the offender.

“We recognise that here with AI, we are venturing into uncharted territory. But we need to know whether or not OpenAI (which developed and owns ChatGPT) has criminal liability,” he added.

Uthmeier said prosecutors would assess the extent of OpenAI’s awareness of the potential for “dangerous behaviour” linked to ChatGPT, and examine what measures, if any, could have been taken to reduce that risk.

“We cannot have AI bots that are advising people on how to kill others,” he added.

Responding to the statement, a spokesperson for OpenAI said: “Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime.”

“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 added.

The spokesperson said OpenAI identified the ChatGPT account associated with the suspected shooter and handed the information over to police after becoming aware of the shooting.

According to authorities, two people were killed and six others injured in the attack, which was allegedly carried out by the son of a local deputy sheriff using her former service weapon.

OpenAI launches browser to rival Google Chrome

AI chatbots misrepresent news almost half the time, says major study

OpenAI under fire: Can chatbots ever truly be child-safe?

Parents sue OpenAI over Californian teen's death