OpenAI faces new lawsuits over Tumbler Ridge mass shooting tragedy

OpenAI is facing another wave of lawsuits in the wake of the February mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge in Canada’s province of British Columbia, which left eight people dead.

On Wednesday, 30 new complaints were reportedly filed in a United States federal court in California, including teachers and students who were witnesses and survivors at the school where most of the shooting took place, joining seven initial lawsuits filed in April.

The lawsuits accuse the San Francisco, California-based artificial intelligence giant and its CEO, Sam Altman, of negligence, as well as aiding and abetting a mass shooting.

The suits, brought by lawyer Jay Edelson, allege that the company knew about the intentions of the 18-year-old shooter who, in her interactions with OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT, had described scenarios involving gun violence, but that the leadership did not report their concerns to law enforcement, echoing earlier lawsuits on the matter.

In April, Altman penned a letter to the community apologising that the company did not alert law enforcement about the shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar.

“While I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss your community has suffered,” Altman wrote in the letter.

Authorities say that Van Rootselaar killed her mother and half-brother before going to the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and opening fire.

Five children and one educator were killed at the school. More than 25 others were wounded before Van Rootselaar died from what police described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

One of the new cases filed was on behalf of a 13-year-old identified as A C, who played dead after watching the shooter kill their classmates and the teacher.

Another new case was brought by a grade seven teacher named Deidre Rushlow, who hid under her desk with her students during the rampage.

“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. 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,” Jason Kwon, OpenAI’s head of strategy, wrote in a post on X on Wednesday.

“We’ve been approaching this litigation with respect for both the legal process and the families and victims of this tragedy, and we’ll continue to engage in good faith with that process.”

Edelson did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Growing legal pressure

In July, British Columbia’s Attorney General Niki Sharma announced that the province would also pursue “all legal avenues to hold OpenAI and its decision-makers accountable” for the shooting.

The company has faced a growing slate of suits, apart from the ones from British Columbia, alleging that its product played a role in incidents that led to users harming others and themselves.

A recent lawsuit in Florida alleges that the company “actively assisted and encouraged the mass shooting” at Florida State University in April 2025.

There are other complaints filed on behalf of victims across the US and Canada alleging that the victims took their own lives after being pushed by ChatGPT to do so, including a case in Quebec earlier this year.

- Al Jazeera