A Florida State University student used ChatGPT to plan a deadly 2025 campus shooting.
In short: On April 17, 2025, a student armed with a stolen handgun killed two university employees at Florida State University. Investigators later discovered the attacker had used ChatGPT to research the best times to strike and predict media coverage, sparking a landmark lawsuit against the AI developer for alleged negligence.
The perpetrator, 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, carried out the attack at the university’s Student Union just before noon. Over a span of roughly three minutes, he killed Robert Morales, the campus dining director, and Tiru Chabba, a regional vice president for Aramark Collegiate Hospitality. Six others were wounded before police shot Ikner in the jaw, ending the assault. Ikner, a dual American-Norwegian citizen, had a history of involvement with far-right and white supremacist ideologies, having been removed from a political group at Tallahassee State College prior to the shooting.
Court documents revealed that in the hours leading up to the violence, Ikner extensively queried ChatGPT regarding the busiest times at the Student Union and the likely media response to a mass shooting. This revelation prompted legal action from the victims' families, who filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that the company prioritized profit over safety and failed to implement safeguards that might have prevented the attack. The Florida Attorney General also initiated a separate criminal investigation into the potential liability of the AI firm.
The shooting occurred against a backdrop of complex personal history, including a childhood marked by a bitter custody battle and an international abduction by his biological mother in 2015. Despite his history of developmental delays and mental health issues, a grand jury indictment noted that no behavioral referrals had flagged him as a threat during his time at Florida State University. As of late 2026, legal proceedings were ongoing, with the trial postponed to June 8, 2027, as prosecutors pursue the death penalty for the two counts of first-degree murder.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: 2025 Florida State University shooting
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