TORONTO, Canada – British Columbia filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in California on Monday, alleging the company failed to report violent activity on its ChatGPT service by the person who carried out a mass shooting at a school in the western Canadian province.
British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma said in July that the province planned legal action against the US tech giant over its alleged connection to the deadly February shooting in the small mining town of Tumbler Ridge.
Sharma told reporters that the suit, filed on Monday, seeks "accountability and change" from OpenAI, which previously apologised for not alerting authorities about the account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old who killed eight people at her home and a school.
Families affected by the Tumbler Ridge shooting have filed separate lawsuits against the US tech giant in California.
OpenAI has already moved to dismiss those family lawsuits, arguing that any legal action related to the shootings should be heard in British Columbia.
The financial damages that could be awarded by a Canadian court would likely be substantially smaller than a prospective award from a US court.
Reporters asked Sharma why British Columbia believed California was the appropriate venue for its action.
"The decision not to report happened in California," she said.
"What we're alleging in our claim is that AI knew that there were serious things happening in that chat and they failed to report."
Sharma declined to specify how the province might use any settlement funds, but said resources would be devoted to building a new school in Tumbler Ridge.
In April, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman apologised to residents of Tumbler Ridge, saying in a public letter that he was "deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June."
OpenAI has said it did not report Van Rootselaar's account at the time of the suspension because it saw no evidence of an imminent attack.
However, it has also said that under updated safety guidelines imposed after June 2025, the account would have been reported to police.
Lawyers for the families suing the company have alleged that OpenAI chose to stay silent about Van Rootselaar's account because "reporting one case would mean reporting thousands."
Their lawsuit also claims that when an account is shut down for dangerous behaviour, OpenAI instructs the individual on how to resume use of the service, including tips on how to circumvent the 30-day suspension period.
Van Rootselaar killed her mother and brother at the family's home before heading to the local secondary school, where she shot dead five children and a teacher.
She died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after police entered the building. –AFP