Province in Canada sues OpenAI over school shooting

The government of the Canadian province of British Columbia has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in California because the company did not notify law enforcement about threats detected in ChatGPT prior to a mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.

Attorney General of British Columbia Niki Sharma announced the lawsuit. According to her, the province seeks to hold OpenAI accountable and strengthen safety rules for companies providing artificial intelligence services.

The province's claims relate to OpenAI's actions before the shooting that occurred on February 10, 2026. The company's internal safety system had previously detected suspicious activity in the future attacker's account, including queries related to firearm usage scenarios. However, the information was not passed on to law enforcement at the time.

OpenAI itself had previously acknowledged that back in June 2025 it blocked a ChatGPT account associated with the attacker after discovering a violation of the service's usage rules. The company stated that at that time it did not see sufficient signs of a concrete and immediate threat that would meet its criteria for contacting law enforcement.

After the shooting, OpenAI also discovered a second account linked to the attacker. The company announced strengthening procedures for referring potential threats of violence to law enforcement agencies and working on better detection of users who create new accounts after being blocked.

Sharma stated that the province had demanded OpenAI provide the attacker's correspondence with ChatGPT, but the company did not hand it over. According to the Attorney General, the case raises a broader question of tech companies' responsibility in cases where their systems record potentially real threats of violence.

The current province's lawsuit is separate from cases already filed by families of the deceased, survivors and school employees. As of early September, the number of such lawsuits against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman related to the Tumbler Ridge shooting had reached 37.

As a result of the attack on February 10, eight people were killed and 27 were injured. British Columbia authorities had already hired law firms in Canada and California in July to prepare claims against OpenAI, and now they have proceeded directly to litigation.

Based on: Government of British Columbia, Global News