Seven families of victims killed in a February school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia are suing OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, claiming the company's ChatGPT chatbot helped the gunman plan his attack and that OpenAI knew about it months in advance.
The lawsuits, filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, allege that 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar had "extensive conversations spanning multiple days about scenarios involving gun violence" with ChatGPT before killing five students, a teacher, and two family members on February 11.
"The Tumbler Ridge attack was an entirely foreseeable result of deliberate design choices OpenAI made with full knowledge of where those choices led," the suits claim. The families allege that despite multiple OpenAI team members recommending contact with Canadian police, the company "made the conscious decision not to warn authorities" to protect its reputation.
OpenAI banned Van Rootselaar's account in June 2023 — eight months before the shooting — after its automated abuse detection tools and human investigators flagged violations of usage policies. The company told CBS News it weighed alerting law enforcement but concluded the account "did not pose any credible risk of serious physical harm."
Last week, Altman issued an apology to the Tumbler Ridge community. "I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June," he said. But the families claim OpenAI "knew the Shooter was planning the attack" after what they describe as a "contentious internal debate" about whether to report him.
The shooter had previously been detained under British Columbia's Mental Health Act, and authorities had temporarily removed firearms from his home, according to police. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound during the rampage.
Among the plaintiffs is the family of an education assistant fatally shot at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in front of her students — including her own daughter. Another lawsuit was filed by relatives of a 13-year-old killed outside the school library, whom the family described as having "a larger-than-life smile and a loud and proud laugh."
This case raises unprecedented questions about AI companies' responsibility to monitor and report users who may pose public safety threats. The lawsuits could establish new legal precedent for when tech companies must alert authorities about concerning user behavior, particularly when their systems detect potential violence.
OpenAI said it has since strengthened safeguards to better connect users showing signs of distress with local mental health support, but the company faces growing scrutiny over whether current AI safety measures are adequate to prevent similar tragedies.
