Chatbot consultations before Tumbler Ridge killings raise questions over AI reporting
Jesse Van Rootselaar consulted OpenAI's ChatGPT for months before carrying out Canada's deadliest school shooting in almost four decades, Al Jazeera.
In one exchange, the chatbot said that in a hallway, indoors or in a crowded classroom, the 870 Remington shotgun is brutal and close quarters is its playground.
On February 10, 2026, Van Rootselaar shot his mother and half-brother at home. He then went to a school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, killed six more people, including five students, and then took his own life.
The case has since moved into the courts. In September, the British Columbia government filed a civil lawsuit against OpenAI and chief executive Sam Altman, accusing them of failing to prevent the shooting. The province claims OpenAI and Altman were aware of the Van Rootselaar conversations that turned deadly. Families of the victims have filed separate lawsuits in connection with the shooting.
OpenAI's leadership has issued a public apology for its failure to notify authorities about the Van Rootselaar case.
On October 14, authorities in the United States charged a Washington State man with allegedly conspiring with Van Rootselaar to plan the Tumbler Ridge attack.
A separate incident has drawn attention to how AI companies handle possible threats. In August, Anthropic flagged a user of its Claude chatbot to San Francisco police after discovering conversations allegedly threatening chief executive Dario Amodei. The user allegedly claimed to possess an AR-15 gun and suggested he had Amodei "in his sights," according to the San Francisco Standard citing a police report. The man said he was joking with no intent of violence and was neither charged nor detained.
Regulators and researchers are weighing what duties chatbot makers should have. Australia told AI chatbot companies to detail their child-protection steps, ordering four companies to explain measures to protect children, Reuters. Scientists have called for an international body to oversee advanced AI, Reuters. A Reuters investigation found Meta had no guardrails in place preventing its AI chatbots from having "sensual" conversations, Reuters.
