British Columbia has sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman in California, claiming a February school shooting that killed nine people could have been prevented if the company had alerted law enforcement about the shooter's use of ChatGPT for planning the attack. The lawsuit seeks damages for recovery efforts and mandated changes to how OpenAI handles conversations that could lead to violence.

The shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, was flagged by OpenAI's safety team in June 2025 following concerning conversations about gun violence, but leadership chose not to contact police. Although her account was subsequently deactivated, she created a new one and continued using ChatGPT to plan the attack that killed an educational assistant and five students aged 12 and 13 at her former school, plus two family members at home. This provincial action follows more than 30 lawsuits from victims' families and comes amid a broader wave of cases against OpenAI over claims that ChatGPT has facilitated violence.