Attorneys who represent one of the victims killed during a shooting at Florida State University last year said they plan to file a lawsuit against ChatGPT claiming the artificial intelligence bot assisted the gunman.
The alleged shooter, Phoenix Ikner, has been accused of killing two people and wounding six others.
The A.I. chatbot “may have advised the shooter how to commit these heinous crimes,” according to the law firm representing the family of Robert Morales, who was killed during the attack back in April 2025.
“We have been advised that the shooter was in constant communication with ChatGPT leading up to the shooting,” the law firm of Brooks, LeBoeuf, Foster, Gwartney, and Hobbs told WCTV in a statement.
“We also have reason to believe that ChatGPT may have advised the shooter how to commit these heinous crimes,” the statement continued. “We will therefore file suit against ChatGPT, and its ownership structure, very soon, and will seek to hold them accountable for the untimely and senseless death of our client, Mr. Morales.”
OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT, said it “identified a ChatGPT account believed to be associated with the suspect” following the shooting, and “proactively shared this information with law enforcement and cooperated with authorities.”
“We built ChatGPT to understand people’s intent and respond in a safe and appropriate way, and we continue improving our technology,” the statement concluded.
Morales’ lawyers also sent the Leon County Sheriff’s office a letter back in September, stating that it too could be held liable, after Ikner was allowed to participate in LCSO’s Youth Advisory Council, where he “was allegedly taught about firearms and displayed behavior that should’ve raised concerns,” WCTV reported.
“Mr. Ikner was not mentally stable and should not be around guns, much less taught how to use them,” the law firm’s letter read. “The Leon County Sheriff’s Office’s handling of Mr. Ikner, as described more fully herein, was at least part of the cause of the murder of Mr. Robert Morales.”
This is not the first time ChatGPT has been highlighted following the commission of a crime.
In June 2025, certain ChatGPT users who were relying on the service to deal with emotional issues were reportedly committed to psychiatric institutions after developing an unhealthy fixation on the bot.
In August 2025, the parents of a dead teenager in Orange County, California, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI after ChatGPT allegedly encouraged the 16-year-old to commit suicide.
And in March of this year, the parents of a girl who was critically wounded in a school shooting in Canada alleged in a civil lawsuit that OpenAI knew the shooter was planning a mass attack but didn’t share the information with law enforcement.
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