TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The family of a man who lost his life after an alleged mass shooter opened fire on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee last year has filed a lawsuit against Open A.I., the parent company of ChatGPT.
Authorities say Phoenix Ikner, 20, consulted ChatGPT about his plans to shoot up FSU in April 2025 and the A.I bot gave him specific information on how to carry it out, even using previous mass shootings as reference points.
Ikner is accused of fatally shooting Tiru Chabba and Robert Morales. Investigators say he also wounded six other people.
“What we’re asserting is that despite some very concerning history of chat discussion between the shooter Phoenix Ikner and ChatGPT, ChatGPT should have been aware that he had an intent to potentially commit a mass shooting,” said Amy Willbanks, attorney for the Chabba family.
Willbanks obtained the chat logs between Ikner and ChatGPT from police who are investigating the case.
‘What we saw was really disturbing. And what his wife saw was also very disturbing to her. And it made us start to take a closer look at this and what could have been done to prevent this tragedy from happening," she said.
Willbanks believes further testing and development of the technology could have prevented the shooting.
A spokesman for OpenA.I said in a statement “Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime.”
The company also said it’s cooperating with authorities.
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