Tumbler Ridge mass shooting victims file 30 new lawsuits against OpenAI

The Tumbler Ridge mass shooting has led to 30 new lawsuits against OpenAI, filed on behalf of the victims. The suits, submitted on Wednesday, allege that the company’s ChatGPT chatbot induced the shooter to carry out the attack in rural Canada in February, resulting in the deaths of eight individuals and injuries to dozens more, many of whom were children.

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“These were people who really endured just total hell that day,” said Jay Edelson, the lead lawyer representing the plaintiffs. “Young kids who watched their teachers die, watched friends die and thought they were going to get shot and killed.”

These new lawsuits were filed in federal court for the northern district of California, following seven initial suits filed in April. This brings the total number of cases against OpenAI related to the Tumbler Ridge shooting to 37. The lawsuits allege that the violent intentions of the shooter, identified as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, were known to OpenAI's senior leadership, who failed to report her to authorities.

According to court filings, employees on the company’s safety team flagged the shooter’s account to executives eight months before the attack, describing her as “a credible and specific threat of gun violence against real people.” Although OpenAI banned her account, she was able to quickly create a new one.