The families of victims killed in one of the deadliest mass shootings in Canada’s history have already sued OpenAI over its failure to warn law enforcement after discovering in advance that the shooter was using ChatGPT to plan the violence. Now, British Columbia is suing, explaining for the first time how costly and extreme the disaster response has been. OpenAI and Sam Altman owe the tiny remote mining community shattered by the tragedy much more than an apology, the Canadian province argued.
They must make meaningful changes to end ChatGPT-assisted violence and then pay whatever it costs to help Tumbler Ridge to rebuild, recover, and heal. In a complaint filed Monday, British Columbia explained that Tumbler Ridge Secondary School had to be demolished after an 18-year-old transgender shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, committed suicide there in February after killing five kids and an education assistant. In total, eight lives were lost, as prior to the school shooting, Van Rootselaar shot their mother and half-brother.
Previously, the secondary school sat “in the heart of the town, both geographically and culturally,” the lawsuit said. But after the shooting, it became an unavoidable “symbol of the trauma.” About 160 students, teachers, and staff “were trapped in classrooms and closets” at the school for hours, and they were too traumatized to ever go back. To provide “at least some small relief to those who have suffered the most intensely,” demolition began in August, and the community hopes to have a replacement school built at a new location by the end of this year, if all goes to plan.
British Columbia argued that OpenAI and Altman should pay for the school, as well as cover a wide range of other emergency costs that never would have been incurred if not for “this tragedy and its foreseeable consequences.” They also asked the court to provide injunctive relief, including requiring OpenAI to update ChatGPT to automatically terminate violent conversations.
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