OpenAI Sued Over Mass Shooting Threat

0:00It's April 29th. This is Global News Today, AI-powered stories shaping the world. I'm Cory with the story. Family members of victims from one of Canada's worst mass shootings have filed lawsuits against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in federal court in San Warren, Francisco. They claimed the company spotted the shooter as a serious threat eight months before the February 10th attack in Tumblr Ridge, British Columbia. Their violent chat GPT conversations, but chose not to alert police. The 18-year-old shooter killed her mother, stepbrother, an educational assistant, and five students aged 12 to 13 at her old school, leaving 9 dead total before taking her own life. A 12-year-old survivor shot three times is still in intensive care. Plaintiffs say OpenAI safety team flagged the chats in June, but leadership overruled them to avoid bad press ahead of a huge public offering. In AI, called it a tragedy, and pointed to their zero tolerance for violence promotion.

1:00They've since boosted safeguards, like better threat detection, mental health referrals, and flagging repeat violators. Altman even wrote an open letter saying he's deeply sorry police weren't notified. The lawyer behind the suits plans two dozen more for other victims, marking the first US cases linking chat GPT directly to a mass shooting. This fits a bigger trend of lawsuits blaming AI chatbots for self-harm, mental issues, and violence plus a criminal probe in Florida over another campus shooting. These early-stage battles will test if AI firms can be held accountable for user actions or chat content, pushing for mandatory police reports on, credible threats while OpenAI keeps refining its systems.