The province of British Columbia is suing OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman for negligence after the company ignored its own safety team and allowed a school shooter to use ChatGPT to plan a massacre, shattering Big Tech's favorite defense that they are just neutral platforms.
When an AI product actively assists in real-world violence and corporate leadership overrules staff to avoid calling the cops, the "safety theater" used to justify censoring lawful speech collapses. If AI companies face real liability for the harm their tools cause, the excuses for sweeping censorship fall apart. Accountability cuts both ways.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court, stems from the February 10 attack in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. Eighteen-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar shot and killed her mother and stepbrother at home before heading to her former school, where she murdered an educational assistant and five students aged 12 and 13, then died by suicide. Nine people are dead.
According to The Guardian, Van Rootselaar’s interactions with ChatGPT were flagged by the company’s safety team in June 2025. Safety team members recommended contacting police, but Altman and other OpenAI leadership overruled them, according to whistleblowers who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. The company claimed the chats didn't meet internal criteria for reporting to law enforcement. They deactivated her account, but she simply created a new one and kept planning.
British Columbia is seeking damages to fund recovery efforts, including the demolition of the school, mental health care, and an order forcing OpenAI to change how it handles conversations tied to violence. British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma stated, "No company should be exempt from accountability simply because the technology is new." Premier David Eby called Altman’s subsequent apology "necessary, and yet grossly insufficient."
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri called the shooting an "unspeakable tragedy" and claimed the company is "committed to working collaboratively with government and law enforcement officials." Altman previously promised reforms but never followed through, the lawsuit says. OpenAI maintains it trains its models to refuse requests that could "meaningfully enable violence" and notifies law enforcement of an "imminent and credible risk of harm to others"—a threshold they conveniently missed until the bodies were cold.
The Tumbler Ridge suit follows more than 30 lawsuits from victims' families and a June lawsuit from Florida, which accused OpenAI of misrepresenting ChatGPT's safety after it provided information to school shooters and guidance on self-harm.
Big Tech spends billions building "safety" infrastructure to censor political speech and police wrongthink, yet when their own employees flag an imminent, real-world massacre, leadership looks the other way. If they can't protect children from actual violence, what exactly is their safety apparatus for?
