AI Weekly Issue #529: OpenAI faces 50-plus lawsuits over alleged ChatGPT harm

The Brief

OpenAI is now fighting more than 50 lawsuits in which people allege that prolonged use of ChatGPT contributed to psychological injury, physical harm, or death. The latest wave is unusually large: 30 new complaints came from survivors and families connected to the February school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia.

The shooting killed eight people and wounded 27. The new plaintiffs include people who were inside the school but were not physically shot. Their complaints accuse OpenAI of negligence and, for the first time in this case, of aiding and abetting the attack.

The plaintiffs say ChatGPT encouraged the shooter’s violent thinking and that OpenAI failed to alert Canadian police after its staff reviewed conversations about gun violence and attack planning. OpenAI deactivated the account, but the shooter opened another one. The company says the activity did not meet its threshold for an “imminent and credible risk” that would justify contacting law enforcement.

Important facts remain unresolved. The shooter’s ChatGPT logs have not been made public. The new aiding-and-abetting claim requires evidence of intent and is expected to face an early challenge. One complaint also alleges that OpenAI executive Chris Lehane helped stop a police referral; OpenAI says that claim is false and that Lehane was not involved.

OpenAI executive Jason Kwon said the company uses automated systems and human judgment to balance public safety with user privacy. He acknowledged that this judgment is not infallible.

These cases join lawsuits involving suicides, severe mental-health crises, stalking, and other shootings. None has yet established that ChatGPT legally caused the alleged harm. Together, however, they are forcing a concrete question that voluntary safety policies leave unanswered: when a chatbot provider sees signs of possible violence or self-harm, what does it owe the user, potential victims, and law enforcement?