The suits allege the company prioritized its reputation over the safety threat posed by the chatbot conversations
OpenAI was hit with multiple lawsuits claiming the artificial intelligence company could have prevented a mass shooting in Canada earlier this year by informing law enforcement about the suspected killer’s messages with the popular chatbot ChatGPT.
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The complaints were filed Wednesday in federal court in California by teachers, students and a principal who were present during the February massacre at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia. They alleged OpenAI knew that Jesse Van Rootselaar, the chief suspect, was planning the attack due to her use of ChatGPT, but made a “conscious decision” not to warn authorities.
“This is not someone typing into Google ‘Where can I buy a gun?’” said Jay Edelson, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the cases. “This is technology where the chatbot is helping plan murders.”
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The lawsuits aren’t the first against OpenAI tied to the shooting. In April, seven cases were filed by other family members and victims, including the mother of a girl killed in the shooting and a 12-year-old student who was shot. Those cases are ongoing.
Jason Kwon, OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, said in a statement Wednesday that it’s “completely untrue to say that the people at the centre of these challenging decisions do not prioritize safety.”
“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about what happened at Tumbler Ridge, or the victims of this devastating tragedy and their families,” Kwon said in a statement. “It’s a constant and sobering reminder of the important and incredibly difficult work that many people in my team do each and every day.”
