Tumbler Ridge families sue OpenAI for not alerting police to the suspect’s ChatGPT activity

Seven families of victims injured or killed in the Tumbler Ridge school shooting in Canada have filed lawsuits against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, accusing the company and its leadership of negligence after they failed to alert police to the suspected shooter’s ChatGPT activity. The families allege OpenAI stayed silent after its systems flagged activity by shooting suspect Jesse Van Rootselaar in order to protect the company’s reputation and upcoming initial public offering (IPO).

The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI “considered” flagging the 18-year-old’s activity to police, which reportedly involved conversations about gun violence, but ultimately decided against it. The lawsuits accuse OpenAI of lying about its move to “ban” Van Rootselaar, as the company allegedly only deactivated the suspect’s account, who later created a new one under another email:

When OpenAI was later forced to disclose that the Shooter created a new account, it told a second lie: it claimed they must have “evaded” the company’s safeguards to create one. But there were no safeguards to evade. The Shooter simply followed OpenAI’s own instructions to create a new account after being banned. The “safeguards” OpenAI pointed to after the attack did not fail; they did not exist.

The families also claim GPT-4o’s “defective” design played a part in the mass shooting. Last year, OpenAI rolled back its GPT-4o update after finding it to be “overly flattering or agreeable — often described as sycophantic.” They’re also suing OpenAI and Atlman for wrongful death, as well as aiding and abetting a mass shooting.

Altman apologized to the Tumbler Ridge community last week. “I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June,” Altman said. “Going forward, our focus will continue to be on working with all levels of government to help ensure something like this never happens again.”