Tumbler Ridge families sued OpenAI for not alerting police to suspected ChatGPT activity

The seven families of the people who were injured or killed at the Tumbler Ridge school in Canada have filed lawsuits against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, accusing the company and its leadership of negligence after failing to alert the police about suspected ChatGPT hackers. Families say that OpenAI remained silent after its actions flagged the work and fired the suspect Jesse Van Rootselaar in order to protect the company’s reputation and its upcoming initial public offering (IPO).

The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI “considered” suspending the 18-year-old’s work at the police station, which was said to involve discussing gun violence, but ultimately decided against it. The charges accuse OpenAI of lying about its move to “ban” Van Rootselaar, as the company only suspended the account of the suspect, who later created a new one under another email:

When OpenAI was later forced to reveal that the shooter had created a new account, it made a second lie: it said that he must have “bypassed” the company’s security to create one. But there were no evasive defenses. The attacker simply follows OpenAI’s instructions to create a new account after being banned. The “defenses” OpenAI pointed to after the attack did not fail; they don’t exist.

Families also claim that the GPT-4o’s “wrong” design contributed to the mass shooting. Last year, OpenAI rolled back its GPT-4o update after finding it “excessively persuasive or formal – often described as sycophantic.” They are also suing OpenAI and Atlman for wrongful death, as well as aiding and abetting the mass shooting.

Altman apologized to the Tumbler Ridge team last week. “I am very sorry that we did not alert law enforcement about the account that was blocked in June,” Altman said. “Furthermore, our goal is to continue working with all governments to ensure this never happens again.”