OpenAI asks the court to dismiss lawsuits related to the FSU shooting, arguing free speech and no product liability

OpenAI filed a motion to dismiss lawsuits brought by the families of victims of the 2025 Florida State University (FSU) campus shooting, arguing it should not be held liable for the crimes of the shooter, Phoenix Ikner. In the complaint, the families said ChatGPT provided Ikner with factual information such as firearms and campus activities, helping him plan the attack. OpenAI responded that it never encouraged violence, refused illegal instructions, and repeatedly suggested Ikner seek help from friends, clergy, or a therapist and referred him to the 988 crisis hotline when he expressed depression; the company also said Ikner never told it about a shooting plan, and his communications were almost entirely requests for information. OpenAI further argued that providing publicly available legal information is not equivalent to selling a dangerous product, product liability law does not apply to information or ideas, and it had no special relationship with the victims and no knowledge of a specific threat, so it had no duty to warn or prevent; holding it liable would violate free speech. Court documents show Ikner communicated extensively with ChatGPT in the days, hours, and even minutes before the incident, including asking about the busiest times at the FSU student center and how to disengage the safety on a shotgun.