Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Thursday that his office has begun investigating OpenAI, the company behind the widely-used ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot, as the tech firm moves toward a potential public stock offering that could be worth as much as $1 trillion.
Speaking in a video message shared on the social media platform X, Uthmeier expressed alarm about the possibility that OpenAI’s information and artificial intelligence systems might end up “into the hands of America’s enemies, such as the Chinese Communist Party.”
The attorney general’s office plans to serve subpoenas to the company in the near future.
Uthmeier further raised concerns about ChatGPT’s role in facilitating harmful activities, noting that the platform, which serves more than 900 million users each week, has been connected to illegal conduct such as child exploitation and promoting suicide and self-harm behaviors.
“We’ve also learned that ChatGPT may likely have been used to assist the murderer in the recent mass school shooting at Florida State University” that killed two, he added.
The company has not yet provided a response to requests for comment from Reuters.
Though recognizing artificial intelligence as a “monumental leap” in technological advancement, Uthmeier emphasized that it should enhance, assist and benefit humanity rather than “lead to an existential crisis or our ultimate demise.”
Previously, California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta and Delaware’s Attorney General Kathy Jennings collaborated on a letter sent to OpenAI in September 2025, voicing serious worries about growing reports regarding how the company’s technologies affect children.
