Tallahassee, United States. The family of a man killed in the 2025 mass shooting at Florida State University has filed a federal lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging the accused shooter used ChatGPT to help plan the attack.
Lawsuit filed in Florida federal court
The family of Tiru Chabba filed the lawsuit on Sunday in Florida federal court against OpenAI and Phoenix Ikner, the man charged in the shooting. The case is at least the second lawsuit filed in the United States accusing OpenAI of facilitating a mass shooting.
Allegations about planning and product design
The lawsuit claims ChatGPT served as a co-conspirator because Ikner planned and carried out the shooting using information provided by ChatGPT in conversations in the preceding months. It alleges that despite conversations about mass shootings, the lethality of Ikner’s weapons, and when the FSU student union was busiest, the chatbot did not flag or escalate the conversations.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and accuses OpenAI of designing a defective product and failing to warn the public about its risks.
OpenAI response and cooperation with law enforcement
“Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,” OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said in a statement.
Pusateri said ChatGPT provided factual responses with information broadly available from public sources on the internet and did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity. He added that after the shooting the company identified an account believed to be associated with the suspect and proactively shared it with law enforcement, and said OpenAI continues to cooperate with law enforcement and is working to improve detection of harmful intent.
Shooting details and charges
Authorities said Ikner, a deputy sheriff’s son, killed two people and wounded four others at the school before he was shot by officers and hospitalized. Court records show he faces two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted first-degree murder.
A lawyer for Ikner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
State investigation
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced in April that he was launching a criminal investigation into ChatGPT’s role in the FSU shooting after prosecutors reviewed chat logs between Ikner and the program.
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