British Columbia files lawsuit against OpenAI over ChatGPT's role in Tumbler Ridge school shooting

British Columbia filed a civil complaint on Monday seeking compensation from OpenAI and its chief executive for costs associated with the demolition and replacement of Tumbler Ridge Secondary School after an 18-year-old shooter used ChatGPT to plan a February 2026 attack that killed eight people. The lawsuit argues that the province should be reimbursed for emergency response expenses, temporary schooling facilities, counseling services and other long-term recovery measures, and it asks the court to order OpenAI to modify the chatbot so that violent conversations are automatically terminated.

The province also requests an order compelling OpenAI to disclose the shooter’s ChatGPT conversation logs, which have only been shared with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The RCMP declined to comment on public release of the logs. OpenAI said it protected the user’s privacy when it overrode internal safety teams that had recommended sharing the logs with police. A company spokesperson expressed sympathy for the victims and said OpenAI remains committed to working with authorities on safety improvements.

Attorney General Niki Sharma said, > "We should be asking them why they won’t release the chat logs. In any other circumstance where a person aids, encourages or conspires to commit a criminal offense or is criminally negligent, they can be investigated, prosecuted, and judged. There is no AI exemption to those criminal law principles."

The complaint notes that OpenAI’s internal reviewers flagged the shooter’s conversations as a credible risk in June 2025, but senior leadership decided the threat did not meet a higher reporting threshold, resulting only in deactivation of the account and the creation of a new one. The province alleges that this decision allowed the shooter to continue using the service, contributing to the planning of the attack.

British Columbia contends that OpenAI’s safety measures have not been effective after several mass-shooting incidents linked to the chatbot, and it seeks court-ordered independent audits and specific changes to the model’s instructions that currently assume good-faith intent and avoid probing violent intent.

The lawsuit also highlights the extensive costs incurred by the community, including demolition of the former school, construction of temporary classrooms from forestry trailers, hiring of substitute educators, and provision of more than 900 counseling sessions to children and families within three months of the tragedy. The province argues that these expenses are not covered by regular public services and should be borne by OpenAI.

OpenAI has not commented directly on the lawsuit or the requested remedies. In April 2026, CEO Sam Altman issued an apology, stating, > "I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June," which the province interprets as an admission that the company failed to notify authorities.