Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The British Columbia government has hired lawyers in both B.C. and California to pursue legal action against OpenAI.
It wants to hold the company accountable for the role it played in the shooting that left eight victims dead in the northern community of Tumbler Ridge in February.
Attorney General Niki Sharma said Tuesday that no company or corporate leader should escape accountability when public safety is at stake.
An 18-year-old shooter killed her mother and brother in their family home, then moved on to the local secondary school and killed five students and an educational assistant before turning the weapon on herself.
The teen’s use of ChatGPT before the murders is now the subject of multiple lawsuits filed by families of the victims and community members against the chatbot’s creator, OpenAI, and company founder Sam Altman.
Sharma said “we were all shocked” by the revelation the killings might have been prevented had OpenAI reported the shooter’s “alarming” messages on the platform.
Altman wrote a letter of apology to the community for not alerting police when the firm’s staff flagged the killer’s account.
The province would pursue damages on behalf of the government, including the costs of building a new school, Sharma said, adding the “claim is broad” at this point. #openai #britishcolumbia #tumblerridge
The British Columbia government has hired lawyers in both B.C. and California to pursue legal action against OpenAI.
It wants to hold the company accountable for the role it played in the shooting that left eight victims dead in the northern community of Tumbler Ridge in February.
Attorney General Niki Sharma said Tuesday that no company or corporate leader should escape accountability when public safety is at stake.
An 18-year-old shooter killed her mother and brother in their family home, then moved on to the local secondary school and killed five students and an educational assistant before turning the weapon on herself.
The teen’s use of ChatGPT before the murders is now the subject of multiple lawsuits filed by families of the victims and community members against the chatbot’s creator, OpenAI, and company founder Sam Altman.
Sharma said “we were all shocked” by the revelation the killings might have been prevented had OpenAI reported the shooter’s “alarming” messages on the platform.
Altman wrote a letter of apology to the community for not alerting police when the firm’s staff flagged the killer’s account.
The province would pursue damages on behalf of the government, including the costs of building a new school, Sharma said, adding the “claim is broad” at this point. #openai #britishcolumbia #tumblerridge
