Florida on Tuesday announced a criminal probe into whether ChatGPT artificial intelligence played a role in a deadly mass shooting at a university in the US state.

The decision to launch an investigation came after prosecutors reviewed exchanges between OpenAI chatbot ChatGPT and the suspected gunman, who opened fire at Florida State University last year, according to state Attorney General James Uthmeier.

"If ChatGPT were a person, it would be facing charges for murder," Uthmeier said in a release.

Florida law allows anyone who aids, abets, or counsels someone in the commission of a crime to be treated as an "aider and abettor" bearing the same responsibility as the perpetrator, according to Uthmeier.

Details of the exchange between the gunman and ChatGPT were not disclosed.

"Last year's mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime," an OpenAI spokesperson said in response to a journalist's inquiry.

"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."

OpenAI identified the ChatGPT account linked to the suspected shooter and provided it to police after learning of the shooting, the spokesperson noted.

Two men were killed and six other people injured in the mass shooting allegedly carried out by the son of a local deputy sheriff with her old service weapon, according to authorities.

The suspect – identified as Phoenix Ikner – rampaged through Florida State University, shooting at students before he was shot by local law enforcement.

Ikner was hospitalised with "serious but non-life-threatening injuries," investigators said.

Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil said at the time that Ikner was a student at the university and the son of an "exceptional" member of his staff.

He added that the suspect was part of the sheriff's office training programmes, meaning "it's not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons."

Bystander footage aired by CNN appeared to show a young man walking on a lawn and shooting at people who were trying to get away.

Mass shootings are common in the United States, where a constitutional right to bear arms trumps demands for stricter rules.

That is despite widespread public support for tighter control on firearms, including restricting the sale of high-capacity clips. (AFP)



Edited by Cecil Wong