Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week’s top stories from the intersection of politics and technology.
OpenAI sued over FSU shooting
The family of a victim killed in a shooting at Florida State University last year is suing OpenAI, alleging the shooter was inspired and advised by its chatbot, ChatGPT, on how to maximize damage.
The federal lawsuit, filed in Florida, claims ChatGPT informed the alleged shooter on how to operate certain guns and when FSU’s campus would be busiest. According to the suit, ChatGPT responded to a query about how to gain the most attention by saying in part:
Context also matters — fewer victims can still lead to national coverage if it happens at an elementary school or major college, if the shooter is a student or staff member, or if there’s something culturally or politically charged (for example, racial motives, a manifesto, or mental-health implications).
OpenAI declined responsibility, CNN reported:
OpenAI said that while the FSU shooting was a “tragedy,” ChatGPT is “not responsible.”
“In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity,” said OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri. “We work continuously to strengthen our safeguards to detect harmful intent, limit misuse, and respond appropriately when safety risks arise.”
As CNN noted, this litigation adds to a growing list of lawsuits accusing ChatGPT of fueling harmful behavior. And, to be clear, this issue isn’t unique to OpenAI: There have been numerous incidents — such as xAI’s Grok being used to produce nonconsensual sexual images, including ones depicting children — that suggest the public ought to remain skeptical of chatbots and their effect on society.
Read more at CNN.
France’s X investigation
Speaking of Elon Musk’s Grok, French investigators have escalated their probe — over the chatbot’s dissemination of Holocaust denials and nonconsensual deepfakes — to a criminal investigation. Musk has called the investigation a political attack, without providing evidence. According to CNBC, the escalation comes after Musk declined to appear for questioning. Last month, President Donald Trump’s Justice Department officially refused to assist French investigators in getting Musk to comply.
Read more at CNBC.
Judge slams DOGE’s humanities cuts
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities, calling the cuts discriminatory. The judge also rebuked employees at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency for trying to blame ChatGPT, which they used while trying to decide which programs to slash.
Read more at MS NOW.
Netanyahu sweats over social media
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that a reported rise in anti-Israel sentiment among Americans is the result of foreign influence campaigns on social media. The evidence-free comments, made on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” underscore Netanyahu’s concerns about online criticism — and his efforts to suppress it amid backlash over Israel’s bombing campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
Netanyahu met with right-wing influencers last summer in an effort to stem anti-Israel sentiment among conservatives. And according to recent polling, Israel’s standing has significantly dropped among Democrats, fueling some primary challenges among liberals.
Watch the “60 Minutes” interview at CBS News.
Canvas hack underscores cybersecurity cuts
I wrote about the recent ransomware attack on Canvas, an educational app used by thousands of K-12 schools and universities across the country, and how the debilitating hack spotlights the danger in the Trump administration’s gutting of cybersecurity programs.
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Read more at MS NOW.
A new ICE-monitoring app emerges
The developers behind Tucson Migra Map, which allows users to track U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, explained to The Associated Press why they believe their platform is positioned to avoid the fate of other ICE-tracking apps that have been taken offline amid pressure from the Trump administration.
Read more at The Associated Press.
Texas sues Netflix
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for the U.S. Senate, has filed a lawsuit in his official capacity against Netflix, accusing the streaming platform of “spying” on users, collecting data without consent and deploying features designed to make the platform addictive. A Netflix spokesperson said in a statement that the lawsuit “lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information.”
Read more at Variety.
Meta ends Instagram’s end-to-end encryption
Meta has officially killed end-to-end encryption on Instagram, meaning the social platform will no longer offer the feature that supposedly blocked third parties — including government entities — from viewing messages between users.
Read more at PCMag.
Trump Mobile drives buyers mad
MS NOW’s Ari Melber delivered a great segment spotlighting customers who ordered Trump-branded mobile phones feeling “duped” and “angry” after not receiving anything for more than a year. He explained why a recent update to the preorder terms and conditions means the phones may never arrive.
Read my colleague Allison Detzel’s write-up of the segment — and watch the segment in full — at MS NOW.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.