British Columbia has decided that if you're going to build a chatbot capable of planning mass violence, you might at least return a phone call. The province sued OpenAI in California federal court on Monday, naming both the company and CEO Sam Altman as defendants, arguing that a mass shooting at a school in Tumbler Ridge could have been prevented if OpenAI had simply warned local law enforcement that the shooter had used ChatGPT to plan the massacre.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco, seeks damages to fund recovery efforts in the province after the February attack, plus an order directing OpenAI to change how it handles ChatGPT conversations that could lead to violence - a sentence that should probably not need to exist in 2026.

Nine people, primarily children, were killed in the Tumbler Ridge school shooting. The shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, had been flagged by the company's own safety team after her conversations about gun violence, but the company did not alert police. Altman published a letter to the community saying he was "deeply sorry" OpenAI had not contacted law enforcement. He promised reforms but never followed through, despite efforts from British Columbia's attorney general to engage, according to the lawsuit.

The school where the shooting took place is in the process of being demolished, and the province has been forced to absorb the costs of a replacement school, mental health care and other effects of the shooting, the lawsuit says.

OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri called the Tumbler Ridge shooting an unspeakable tragedy. "OpenAI remains committed to working collaboratively with government and law enforcement officials, and continuing to advance our ongoing safety work." Which is a sentence that sounds reassuring until you remember the part about the safety team being overruled.

British Columbia's lawsuit follows more than 30 family members of victims and others affected by the attack who filed lawsuits in California, accusing the company of opting out of a chance to prevent the shooting.

According to police, Van Rootselaar shot her mother and stepbrother at home before killing an educational assistant and five students aged 12 and 13 at her former school on 10 February. Van Rootselaar, who was 18, then died by suicide.

Van Rootselaar's interactions with ChatGPT were first flagged by the company in June 2025. Safety team members recommended contacting police, but Altman and other OpenAI leadership overruled them, the lawsuit says, citing OpenAI whistleblowers who spoke to the Wall Street Journal in the wake of the shooting. The shooter's account was deactivated, but she was able to get a new account and continue using the platform to plan her attack - a loophole that feels less like an oversight and more like a feature.

After publication of the Wall Street Journal article, the company said the account was flagged by systems that identify "misuses of our models in furtherance of violent activities", but the issues did not meet its internal criteria for reporting to law enforcement. The internal criteria, presumably, being written by the same people who overruled the safety team.

The lawsuit comes after a series of cases against OpenAI have been filed in US state and federal courts in recent months over claims ChatGPT facilitated violence, including lawsuits related to a mass shooting at Florida State University last year. In June, Florida became the first state to sue OpenAI over safety risks, accusing the company of misrepresenting the safety of its ChatGPT platform, which the lawsuit said had harmed children by providing information to school shooters, offering guidance on self-harm and addicting young users.

OpenAI, which has denied the claims, has said it trains its models to refuse requests that could "meaningfully enable violence", and notifies law enforcement when conversations suggest "an imminent and credible risk of harm to others". The company has not explained why an 18-year-old planning a school shooting apparently fell outside that definition, but we're sure the internal review will be thorough and the reforms will definitely happen this time.