British Columbia filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in U.S. federal court on Monday, saying the company failed to warn authorities about concerning conversations a user had with ChatGPT before the shooting in Tumbler Ridge.
British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma said the case raises questions about the responsibilities of technology companies when they learn of credible threats of serious violence. According to her, OpenAI has so far taken no meaningful steps to address the claims of survivors, the families of the dead, and residents of the Tumbler Ridge community.
OpenAI previously apologized for failing to pass account information about Jesse Van Rutselaar to law enforcement before the 18-year-old man killed eight people, including six children, in February. According to media reports, OpenAI’s safety system flagged activity on that account because of mentions of gun violence several months before the attack, but local authorities were not warned.
In April, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman apologized to the victims’ families in an open letter and wrote that the company should not have failed to warn law enforcement. Separate lawsuits against OpenAI have also been filed by the families of people who died or were injured in the shooting.
Sharma told journalists that she had not read the contents of the ChatGPT conversations and said the province had asked OpenAI to disclose those chats. According to her, the company refused to do so, and any money the court may award will be used to restore the high school in Tumbler Ridge.
According to Sharma, the lawsuit was filed in California because the alleged decision not to report the shooter’s account was made in that U.S. state.
Sources
