B.C. launches legal action against OpenAI over Tumbler Ridge school shooting
British Columbia has retained counsel to pursue legal action against OpenAI for failing to alert police before the Feb. 10 mass shooting that killed eight people at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.
B.C. government retains lawyers to hold OpenAI accountable for Tumbler Ridge mass shooting
British Columbia has hired legal counsel to pursue action against OpenAI after the company failed to notify law enforcement of threats made on its platform before a gunman killed eight people at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Feb. 10, Global News Crime reports.
The province has retained CFM Lawyers in Vancouver and California-based Stranch, Jennings & Garvey to explore all available legal avenues against OpenAI and its decision-makers, the government announced Tuesday.
The Feb. 10 attack claimed the lives of eight people, including a teacher and five children aged 11 to 13, and left 27 others injured. The shooter, Jesse VanRootselaar, had used OpenAI's ChatGPT platform in the weeks prior.
OpenAI has said it disabled VanRootselaar's account in June over "violent" activity and subsequently discovered a second ChatGPT account linked to his name after the shooting — despite a system designed to flag repeat policy offenders. The company ultimately alerted the RCMP to his ChatGPT activity only after the shooting had taken place.
"When there are serious concerns that opportunities to prevent harm were missed, we have a responsibility to act," B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma said in a statement. "We owe that to the victims, their families and everyone whose life was changed by this tragedy."
Sharma also addressed the province's willingness to take on large corporations: "British Columbia has never shied away from taking on powerful corporations when their actions cause harm to people and communities. No company or corporate leader should be beyond scrutiny when public safety is at stake."
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman issued an apology letter to the Tumbler Ridge community in April.
The provincial legal action is separate from civil litigation already initiated by victims' families. In late April, seven families affected by the shooting filed lawsuits against OpenAI and Altman in a San Francisco court on behalf of five murder victims and two survivors who were injured.
"These families from the Canadian north have come together and they've decided to pursue litigation in the United States on a scale that can hold these companies to account," Vancouver-based lawyer John Rice with Rice Parsons Leoni & Elliott LLP told Global News.
The lawsuits allege that in the weeks following the Tumbler Ridge attack, "a sickening truth emerged: ChatGPT played a role in the mass shooting and OpenAI could have, and should have, prevented it." Those claims have not been tested in court.
The RCMP criminal investigation into the shooting remains ongoing. Staff Sgt. Kris Clark, senior media relations officer with RCMP E Division, confirmed Tuesday that digital and physical evidence has been collected and processed, and that analysis of electronic devices and data from multiple social media and online accounts is still underway.
Investigators have reviewed more than 100 interview statements from students, educators and first responders and are completing firearms assessments. Clark said the possibility of criminal charges has not been ruled out.
"It is important to understand that the absence of publicly disclosed details does not mean investigators do not have that information," Clark said. "Rather, we must protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation, particularly with potential future prosecution in mind."
Clark added that the RCMP is also preparing to participate fully in an upcoming B.C. Coroner's Inquest into the deaths.
Source: Global News Crime