Lawsuit Blames ChatGPT Creator OpenAI for Assisting in School Shooting Planning
Lawsuit blames ChatGPT maker OpenAI for helping plan a school shooting
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The lawsuit claims that Phoenix Ikner, the alleged gunman who was a 20-year-old FSU student at the time, used ChatGPT for “input and assistance” to carry-out the shooting that killed two people and wounded six others.
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The OpenAI logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen which displays the ChatGPT home Screen, March 17, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
Read More Lawsuit blames ChatGPT maker OpenAI for helping plan a school shooting Read More 1 of 2
The lawsuit claims that Phoenix Ikner, the alleged gunman who was a 20-year-old FSU student at the time, used ChatGPT for “input and assistance” to carry-out the shooting that killed two people and wounded six others.
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The OpenAI logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen which displays the ChatGPT home Screen, March 17, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
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The OpenAI logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen which displays the ChatGPT home Screen, March 17, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
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The widow of a man killed in last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University is suing ChatGPT maker OpenAI, blaming the company’s artificial intelligence chatbot for giving advice on how to carry out the rampage.
The lawsuit comes after state authorities disclosed that ChatGPT gave information to the shooter about what time and location would maximize victims on campus, as well as the type of gun and ammunition to use. Authorities say he was also told that an attack can get more media attention if children are involved.
“OpenAI knew this would happen. It’s happened before and it was only a matter of time before it happened again,” Vandana Joshi, whose husband Tiru Chabba was one of two people killed, said in a statement Monday. Six people were also wounded.
The lawsuit, filed Sunday in federal court, says OpenAI should have built ChatGPT with guardrails to let someone know that police may need to investigate “to prevent a specific plan for imminent harm to the public.”
OpenAI has denied any wrongdoing in what it called a “terrible 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,” Drew Pusateri, a spokesman for the company, said in an email to The Associated Press.
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Separately, in April, Florida’s attorney general said there was a rare criminal investigation into ChatGPT over whether the AI tool offered advice to Phoenix Ikner that enabled the April 2026 shooting in Tallahassee. The 21-year-old has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and several counts of attempted murder. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty.
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Investigators said Ikner, a Florida State student, was on campus for an hour before he walked in and out of campus buildings and green spaces while firing a handgun. The shooting took place on a weekday just before lunchtime near the school’s Student Union, which has food and shops. The lawsuit says Ikner asked ChatGPT about the busiest times there.
Joshi’s husband, a 45-year-old father of two from Greenville, South Carolina, was a regional vice president of the food service vendor Aramark Collegiate Hospitality. The other man who was killed, Robert Morales, 57, was a campus dining coordinator at Florida State.
OpenAI “put their profits over our safety and it killed my husband. They need to be responsible before another family has to go through this,” Joshi said in a statement released by her lawyer.
OpenAI is currently valued at $852 billion.
Several lawsuits have sought damages from AI and tech companies over the influence of chatbots and social media on loved ones’ mental health.
In March, a jury in Los Angeles found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children using their services. In New Mexico, a jury determined that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
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Associated Press reporter Ed White in Detroit contributed.
Martin covers a variety of topics including crime, hurricanes, and civil rights across the southeastern U.S. He was a member of the AP team named a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for the Lethal Restraint project. mailto