British Columbia prepares legal action against OpenAI over school shooting warnings
The province says OpenAI failed to alert police after staff flagged violent ChatGPT activity tied to the Tumbler Ridge attacker.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
3 min read
British Columbia is preparing legal action against OpenAI over allegations that the company failed to warn police about violent ChatGPT activity later linked to a deadly school shooting. The province says the case could test what duties artificial intelligence companies have when their systems surface potential threats.
Attorney General Niki Sharma said Tuesday that British Columbia has retained legal teams in the province and in California to examine legal options against OpenAI and its decision-makers. Sharma’s office said the province is looking at claims tied to what it called a failure to notify law enforcement about explicit threats flagged on ChatGPT.
OpenAI is based in San Francisco, California. The planned provincial action would be separate from a lawsuit already filed in California by families of victims, according to Sharma’s office.
Attack in Tumbler Ridge
The legal move follows the February 10 attack in Tumbler Ridge, a remote mountain community in British Columbia. Authorities said 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed Van Rootselaar’s mother and half-brother before going to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and opening fire.
Authorities said five children, ages 11 to 13, and one educator were killed at the school. They said 27 other people were wounded before Van Rootselaar died of what police described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
In a statement, Sharma’s office said internal OpenAI reports showed the company’s safety teams had flagged Van Rootselaar’s violent prompts on ChatGPT months before the attack. The statement said OpenAI leadership did not notify police or local authorities.
“When there are serious concerns that opportunities to prevent harm were missed, we have a responsibility to act,” Sharma said.
Families filed earlier lawsuit
The province’s announcement comes about three months after families of seven victims filed their own lawsuit in California against OpenAI and chief executive Sam Altman. Lawyers for the families said the case was brought on behalf of five people killed and two people injured in the shooting.
In a news release, the families’ lawyers said OpenAI flagged and banned the attacker’s ChatGPT account in June 2025, about eight months before the shooting, over “disturbing content” that allegedly included discussion and planning of violent scenarios. The lawyers also said 12 OpenAI employees had urged the company to contact police about the attacker’s plans, but no action was taken.
OpenAI told Canadian media in February that it had banned the account after it was flagged. The company said it considered referring the matter to law enforcement but decided against doing so because the activity did not show “an imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm to others”.
Altman later apologized in Tumbler RidgeLines, a local newspaper. “I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June,” he wrote, adding that he believed an apology was needed to recognize the harm and irreversible loss suffered by the community.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.