British Columbia sues OpenAI and Sam Altman for 'aiding and abetting' school shooter
British Columbia is suing OpenAI to pay for a new school after a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge earlier this year, according to anArs Technicareport. B.C. accuses OpenAI of aiding and abetting a mass shooting," alleging that ChatGPT reinforced the shooter's violent ideation and that OpenAI failed to warn police.
Go deeper with TH Premium: AI and data centers
- The data center cooling state of play
- The custom AI ASIC state of play
- America's AI chip rules keep changing - and the rest of the world is paying the price
- GTC 2026: Ian Buck press Q&A transcript - VP of Hyperscale and HPC speaks out on shelving CPX and shipping LPU decode this year
- Demand for data center CPUs has surged, and AI agents are responsible
B.C. and the local school district are suing both OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman for related costs, including the costs of the emergency response and a replacement school and wellness center. In addition, the province is demanding that ChatGPT make safety changes and also wants the shooter's chat logs produced. OpenAI only shared said logs with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after the shooting. The lawsuit involves eight counts, including negligence, and is seeking both punitive and compensatory damages.
The shooting took place in February. The shooter killed their mother and half-brother at home, and then went on to kill five students and an education assistant at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. This occurred in a town of about 2,400 people. The school never reopened, and demolition began in August. The federal and provincial governments have committed $100 million each for new construction, according to the complaint.
OpenAI flagged the shooter's ChatGPT account as early as June 2025 due to gun violence-related scenario discussions. According to the complaint, the reviewers who examined the related chats concluded the shooter posed a credible risk and recommended a referral to the authorities. OpenAI leadership declined, saying the case did not meet a higher threshold" for credible and imminent" threat reporting. OpenAI deactivated the account, but the shooter continued to use ChatGPT via a second account. Although OpenAI stated that respect for the shooter's privacy backed the decision, Altman later apologized for not alerting police.
The complaint also targets OpenAI's Model Spec, its guidelines for how AI models should behave. B.C. says the spec advised ChatGPT to assume best intentions" without asking the user to clarify intent before making a refusal decision. By spec, the model must try" to prevent imminent real-world harm, but refusal is required if the user signals illicit intent. If the user's intent is unclear and the request isn't otherwise off-limits, the model follows that no-questions rule. According to OpenAI's spec, its production models do not fully follow these guidelines, and the complaint adds that an anti-violence red line" was only added in December 2025.
B.C. also challenges OpenAI's counterargument on privacy, as the company already had confidential information including the user's name, email, and IP addresses, and IP-derived general location for both of the shooter's accounts. OpenAI's privacy policy outside the EU and U.S., including the version in force in June 2025, does allow for the sharing of personal data with government authorities to protect the public. These terms leave calling the police optional.
This follows 37 other U.S. lawsuits over Tumbler Ridge since the shooting. OpenAI has yet to respond to the complaint but could argue against the California filing for reasons of geographic convenience. The province wants those logs produced immediately, which will affect the complaint. OpenAI is also facing other lawsuits related to safety, including one in Florida over claims it marketed its service while concealing potential risks, including those to children. More important and lasting than any compensation is how the outcome of these cases will impact AI safety and privacy in the future.