OpenAI faces new lawsuits over Tumbler Ridge mass shooting tragedy

Multiple new cases have been filed against OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT played a role in the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting.OpenAI is facing another wave of lawsuits in the wake of the February mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge in Canada’s province of British Columbia, which left eight people dead.On Wednesday, 30 new complaints were reportedly filed in a United States federal court in California, including teachers and students who were witnesses and survivors at the school where most of the shooting took place, joining seven initial lawsuits filed in April.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4AI used to create viruses not found in nature for first timelist 2 of 4US pushes looser approach to AI regulation, while EU pushes new lawlist 3 of 4John Ternus succeeds Tim Cook as Apple CEO after 15 yearslist 4 of 4OpenAI says it detected malign activity months before Hugging Face attackend of listThe lawsuits accuse the San Francisco, California-based Artificial Intelligence giant and its CEO, Sam Altman, of negligence, as well as aiding and abetting a mass shooting.The suits, brought by lawyer Jay Edelson, allege that the company knew about the intentions of the 18-year-old shooter who, in her interactions with OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT, had described scenarios involving gun violence, but that the leadership did not report their concerns to law enforcement, echoing earlier lawsuits on the matter.In April, Altman penned a letter to the community apologising that the company did not alert law enforcement about the shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar.“While I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss your community has suffered,” Altman wrote in the letter.Authorities say that Van Rootselaar killed her mother and half-brother before going to the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and opening fire. Five children and one educator were killed at the school. More than 25 others were wounded before Van Rootselaar died from what police described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound.