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British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma speaks to media in Saskatoon in June, 2025.Liam Richards/The Canadian Press
British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma says the government has filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence company OpenAI in California over the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.
Sharma says the province is seeking accountability from the company and to recover costs associated with the shootings in February in which eight victims died.
She says OpenAI failed to warn police of interactions between the shooter and OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGP, and although she has not read the conversations, the province has asked for them.
Survivors and witnesses, including pupils and staff at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School where six victims and the shooter died, are already privately suing OpenAI.
Sharma says laws and safety frameworks have not kept pace with AI technology and companies cannot be left to regulate themselves.
She says she has written to federal officials asking for changes to Canada’s Criminal Code to ensure AI companies can be held accountable for criminal conduct arising from their technologies.