British Columbia sues OpenAI in US court over Canada school shooting

TORONTO, Canada (AFP) — British Columbia filed a lawsuit Monday against OpenAI in California over the company’s failure to report violent activity on its ChatGPT service by the person who committed a mass school shooting 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 for its connection to the deadly February gun violence in the tiny mining town of Tumbler Ridge.

Sharma told reporters that the suit filed earlier Monday is seeking “accountability and change” from OpenAI, which previously apologised for not flagging the account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old transgender woman who killed eight people at her home and a school.