Families of seven victims of a mass shooting at a secondary school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, are suing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman for negligence, alleging the company failed to alert authorities about the shooter's violent conversations with ChatGPT. The lawsuits, filed in a federal court in San Francisco, claim that OpenAI employees flagged the shooter's account eight months before the attack and determined it posed a credible threat of gun violence.
The shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed his mother and 11-year-old brother at home before storming the school on 10 February with a modified rifle. He shot a person in a stairwell, then killed five others and injured 27 in the library before taking his own life. Victims included children aged 12 to 13 and a 39-year-old teaching assistant. One survivor, 12-year-old Maya Gebala, suffered severe injuries and has undergone four brain surgeries.
The lawsuits allege that OpenAI employees urged senior leaders to notify Canadian law enforcement eight months before the attack, but the company instead deactivated the shooter's account. The shooter created a new account using instructions provided by OpenAI, according to the suit. The families accuse OpenAI and Altman of negligence, aiding and abetting a mass shooting, wrongful death, and product liability.
Lead lawyer Jay Edelson stated that the decision to conceal the shooter's interactions was made to protect the company's IPO, valued at $1tn. OpenAI said in a statement: 'The events in Tumbler Ridge are a tragedy. We have a zero-tolerance policy for using our tools to assist in committing violence.' The company noted it has strengthened safeguards and shared information with Canadian officials.
