OpenAI sued by families of school shooting victims in Canada's Tumbler Ridge
Summary
Families of victims in a Canadian school shooting are suing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. They claim the AI chatbot ChatGPT was used by the shooter to plan the attack and say OpenAI should have warned the police earlier.Key Facts
- The lawsuits were filed in San Francisco federal court by seven families of victims from the February 2025 Tumbler Ridge shooting.
- The shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed six people, including students and a teacher, before taking his own life.
- Police had previously detained the shooter under a mental health law and removed firearms from his home temporarily.
- OpenAI banned the shooter’s ChatGPT account in June 2024 for breaking usage rules but did not alert law enforcement.
- CEO Sam Altman apologized to the community for not reporting the banned account sooner.
- The lawsuits accuse OpenAI of ignoring staff warnings to contact police, allegedly to protect the company’s image.
- OpenAI states it has improved ChatGPT’s safeguards to better detect threats and connect users to mental health help.
- The legal claims also mention other cases where ChatGPT was reportedly used to plan violence, including attacks in the US and Finland.
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