British Columbia Sues OpenAI Over Tumbler Ridge Shooting Response

The Canadian province of British Columbia has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company of negligence and designing an unsafe product for failing to alert authorities about the Tumbler Ridge shooter's conversations with its chatbot.

According to the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, the lawsuit claims the shooting could have been prevented if OpenAI had followed its human reviewers' advice to notify the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about the shooter's activity on its service.

In February, the Canadian government demanded safety changes from OpenAI after reports that it didn't alert authorities when employees flagged the shooter's account in 2025 over potential warnings of real-world violence. The shooter's original account was banned, but OpenAI later found she had made a second one. CEO Sam Altman apologized for the failure to alert authorities, and the company committed to notifying law enforcement about credible threats.

British Columbia premier David Eby called Altman's apology "necessary, and yet grossly insufficient." The lawsuit claims OpenAI hasn't meaningfully engaged with Canada and British Columbia on safety matters since the shooting.

"In any other circumstance where a person aids, encourages or conspires to commit a criminal offense or is criminally negligent, they can be investigated, prosecuted and judged," said Niki Sharma, the province's attorney general. "No company should be exempt from accountability simply because the technology is new."

Sharma also noted that some AI executives have themselves called for a global slowdown of frontier AI development, saying they know their technologies pose a safety risk. The lawsuit was filed in California rather than Canada, which could lead to bigger payouts for victims' families. British Columbia also wants OpenAI to pay for a new school in Tumbler Ridge. The company additionally faces a complaint from the victims' families accusing it of negligence.

Source: Engadget