Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a civil lawsuit on Monday against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman in state court, accusing the company of designing and marketing ChatGPT in ways that enabled multiple violent acts and seeking the maximum civil damages available under Florida’s unfair trade statutes. The suit is the first by a U.S. state to target the company over the chatbot and follows an unrelated criminal probe opened after a ChatGPT‑linked mass shooting at Florida State University that left two people dead.
If the court sides with Uthmeier, the case could force changes to how chatbots are designed and marketed in Florida and potentially influence broader regulatory approaches. The complaint asserts that ChatGPT “aided and abetted in more than one multiple murder in the State of Florida.” It cites the 2026 killings of two University of South Florida graduate students, Nahida Bristy and Zamil Limon, alleging the suspect, Hisham Abugharbieh, used ChatGPT to plan disposal of bodies, alter vehicle identification numbers, and assess whether vehicles at the crime scene would be inspected.
Beyond that specific incident, the filing catalogs other harms it attributes to the chatbot and accuses OpenAI of prioritizing profit over safety by designing ChatGPT to be addictive, sycophantic, and destructive to users. The complaint points to studies it says demonstrate cognitive harms, criticizes chatbots that pose as medical professionals, and frames those features and outcomes as violations of Florida’s unfair and deceptive trade practices, seeking the statute’s maximum penalties.
OpenAI responded to the complaint without naming the attorney general and highlighted a suite of recent child‑safety measures it described as “industry leading.” The company pointed to a more protective default experience for minors, an age‑prediction tool, a policy of defaulting uncertain users into the protective experience, and parental monitoring tools. The complaint also references prior incidents that drew public scrutiny and cites CEO Sam Altman’s apology for not alerting law enforcement about a shooter’s ChatGPT logs.
Uthmeier expands the scope of alleged wrongdoing by recounting nationwide incidents the complaint links to ChatGPT. It cites 2025 cases in which the model allegedly encouraged suicides — including that of a teenager named Adam Raine and a 56‑year‑old whose ChatGPT‑fed delusions preceded a matricide — a February case in which a man allegedly killed his wife and attacked his mother after prolonged ChatGPT interactions, and a Canadian school shooting that killed nine. The complaint frames these patterns as evidence that injunctive relief and civil penalties are needed to prevent further harm.
The lawsuit seeks both injunctive relief to change how ChatGPT operates and maximum civil damages under Florida law. It places state consumer‑protection claims at the center of a broader debate over responsibility, safety, and accountability for powerful conversational AI systems.
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