Toronto (Canada) (AFP) – British Columbia said Tuesday it was preparing a lawsuit against OpenAI over the company’s failure to report violent ChatGPT activity by the person who committed a mass school shooting in the western Canadian province. OpenAI had banned an account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025, months before the 18-year-old transgender woman killed eight people at her home and a school in the tiny mining town of Tumbler Ridge.
Canadian families impacted by the February shooting have already filed lawsuits against the US tech giant in a California court. British Columbia said Tuesday it was preparing a separate case, in coordination with the families, and had retained lawyers both in Canada and California. Provincial Attorney General Niki Sharma told reporters that the province wanted to “hold OpenAI and its decision-makers accountable for their failure to notify law enforcement of the violent prompts made on its ChatGPT platform by the perpetrator prior to the tragedy in Tumbler Ridge.”
“British Columbia has never shied away from taking on powerful corporations when their actions cause harm to people and communities,” she added. She cautioned that the legal process will “take time,” but said funds derived from a lawsuit would help the community rebuild, including supporting the construction of a new school in Tumbler Ridge. The province wants to use the court system to “ensure that British Columbians are not left bearing the costs of corporate wrongdoings.”
In April, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman apologized to residents of Tumbler Ridge, saying in a public letter that he was “deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June.” “I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss your community has suffered,” Altman wrote.
OpenAI has said that it did not report Van Rootselaar’s account at the time of the suspension because it saw no evidence of an imminent attack. But it has also said that under updated security guidelines imposed after June 2025, the account would have been reported to police. Lawyers for the families suing the company in a US federal court in California have alleged that OpenAI chose to stay silent about Van Rootselaar’s account because “reporting one case would mean reporting thousands.” Their lawsuit also claims that when an account is shut down for dangerous behavior, OpenAI instructs the individual on how to resume usage, including tips on how to circumvent the 30-day suspension period.
Van Rootselaar killed her mother and brother at the family’s home before heading to the local secondary school, where she shot dead five children and a teacher. She died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after police entered the building.
© 2024 AFP
