OpenAI faces 30 new lawsuits from Tumbler Ridge shooting victims

OpenAI is facing 30 new lawsuits from victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting, with plaintiffs alleging its ChatGPT chatbot contributed to the deadly February attack in British Columbia.

The lawsuits, filed Wednesday in California federal court, bring the total number of cases against OpenAI linked to the shooting to 37, The Guardian reported.

Eight people were killed and dozens wounded, most of them children, when 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar attacked a secondary school after killing her mother and 11-year-old brother at home.

The lawsuits allege OpenAI employees had flagged Van Rootselaar's account eight months before the attack, describing her in internal messages as “a credible and specific threat of gun violence against real people”, according to court filings cited by The Guardian.

OpenAI reportedly banned the account, but the lawsuits claim Van Rootselaar quickly created another.

The plaintiffs accuse OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman of negligence, product liability and aiding and abetting a mass shooting.

“These were people who really endured just total hell that day,” lead lawyer Jay Edelson told The Guardian.

OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon said the company's safety teams work to develop standards for reporting threats to law enforcement.

“They come to work every day knowing that they may have to make a decision that they’ll think about for the rest of their lives,” Kwon said.