Days after Tampa prosecutors revealed that a suspected murderer consulted ChatGPT about placing human remains in a dumpster, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Monday that he’s adding the case to his landmark criminal investigation into OpenAI.
“We are expanding our criminal investigation into OpenAI to include the USF murders after learning the primary suspect used ChatGPT,” Uthmeier announced on social media. He referred to the high-profile murders of two University of South Florida doctoral students, 27-year-old Bangladeshi friends Zimal Limon and Nahida Bristy, reported missing on April 16.
Limon’s roommate, Hisham Aburgharbieh, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder with a weapon and a host of related felonies, including false imprisonment and unlawfully holding or moving a dead body.
New court documents, filed to prevent Abugharbieh’s release on bail, reveal snippets of murder-related questions between the 26-year-old and the AI chatbot.
READ MORE: Uthmeier in Tampa appearance talks Hope Florida, UF teaching position, guns
These conversations, spanning three days before the disappearances to hours before Limon’s body was discovered, include inquiries about putting a human in a trash bag, whether a person could survive a “sniper bullet to the head,” and whether a car’s vehicle identification number can be changed.
Other messages ask whether “cars are checked” at a state park in the early morning hours when the students’ disappeared, and, later: “will my neighbors hear my gun” and “what does missing endangered adult mean.”
The exchanges are remarkable, both in nature and similarity to another Florida case combed through by Uthmeier in his first-of-its-kind probe into OpenAI. Last week, the AG subpoenaed the multibillion-dollar company over its potential involvement in the mass shooting at Florida State University last April.
Criminal bot?
The morning of that attack, accused shooter Phoenix Ikner asked ChatGPT how to fire his guns, the busiest times on campus, and how many murdered victims are needed to draw national media attention.
The investigation is the first attempt in the nation to hold AI company executives or program designers criminally accountable for the actions of generative software. Uthmeier’s office is still weighing whether to directly subpoena OpenAI — as it did in the FSU case — or to squarely involve itself in the Hillsborough case.
Limon’s body was found in a trash bag on the Howard Franklin Bridge on April 24. Human remains believed to be Bristy were found Sunday night in a Tampa waterway.
Florida lawmakers will meet this week to debate increased guardrails for artificial intelligence systems used in the Sunshine State. These regulations would include a ban on companion chatbots for minors, requiring bots to repeatedly remind users that they aren’t human, and provide public record exemptions in certain AI investigations.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
