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Families of victims involved in a mass shooting on Feb. 10 in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, sued Sam Altman and OpenAI in San Francisco federal court.
The plaintiffs claim that OpenAI's chatbot, ChatGPT, failed to alert authorities to the mass shooting.
The mother of one of the victims, a 12-year-old girl who remains in the ICU, filed the first lawsuit. Another mother, whose child was killed, filed a second lawsuit. Other victims and their families plan to file more lawsuits in the coming weeks, The Guardian reported.
The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, carried out a mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. Eight people died. The victims included Van Rootselaar’s mother and stepbrother before the shooting, as well as six others at a school. Five of the victims were children. More than two dozen additional people were injured.
Van Rootselaar was found dead at the scene from what investigators believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
OpenAI employees flagged the shooter's account eight months before the attack and concluded it represented "a credible and specific threat of gun violence against real people," the lawsuit states.
Van Rootselaar was banned from using the chat bot, however, OpenAI did not contact authorities.
Van Rootselaar’s second ChatGPT account went unnoticed until after the shooting occurred and their name was released by the authorities.
Altman wrote a letter to the community of Tumbler Ridge, which was posted on TumblerRidge Lines website, stating that a public apology "was necessary."
"I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law-enforcement to the account that was banned in June. Well, I know words can never be enough. I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss. Your community has suffered," Altman wrote.
He added that he plans to continue working with all levels of government "to ensure something like this never happens again."
Altman stated that under new company guidelines, the conversations between Van Rootselaar and ChatGPT would have been flagged to police.
This is not the only lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman for the company’s lack of oversight for its chat bot.
To date, multiple lawsuits have been filed against OpenAI’s ChatGPT, citing that the artificial intelligence bot acted as an “unlicensed therapist,” or a “suicide coach,” and that the bot provided harmful advice and/or neglected to refer users to crisis counselors.
Earlier this month, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier launched an investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT, citing concerns that the use of artificial intelligence technologies and data may pose risks to public safety and national security.
Uthmeier noted that the artificial intelligence model may also have been used in a mass school shooting at Florida State University.
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This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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