Canada's westernmost province is taking OpenAI to court, arguing the tech company could have helped stop a deadly school shooting earlier this year. British Columbia has filed suit in US federal court in San Francisco, alleging OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman failed to alert police after internal safety staff flagged "concerning" ChatGPT chats from 18-year-old shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar about gun violence months before the February attack in Tumbler Ridge, Reuters reports. Nine people, most of them children aged 12 and 13, were killed in the rampage, which began at Van Rootselaar's home and continued at her former school.
The province wants damages for the cost of rebuilding the demolished school, mental health services, and other fallout, plus a court order forcing changes to how OpenAI handles conversations that could signal plans for violence. "We owe it to the families, survivors, and everyone whose life was changed by this tragedy, to get answers and accountability," said Niki Sharma, BC's attorney general, per the CBC. She said the shooter's conversations with ChatGPT were disturbing enough to trigger an internal review, but she has not read them. "We have asked OpenAI to disclose these chats," Sharma said. "They have refused. We should all be asking them: Why?"
The lawsuit argues that the shooting could have been stopped if OpenAI had contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about the conversations, the New York Times reports. The lawsuit, which cites OpenAI whistleblowers, says Sam Altman and other execs overruled staffers who wanted to contact police. Van Rootselaar's account was deactivated but she was able to get a new one, which she used to plan the attack, reports Reuters. The case follows more than 30 separate lawsuits from victims' family members. OpenAI says it's committed to cooperating with authorities and improving safety.
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