The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that seven lawsuits have been filed in California against Microsoft-backed OpenAI and chief executive officer Sam Altman on behalf of victims of the Tumbler Ridge school shooting, alleging ChatGPT had contributed to the violence.
The Globe's Mike Hager writes that the suits, filed Wednesday in U.S. federal court in San Francisco, also all allege that OpenAI avoided alerting police last year about the shooter's violent interactions with ChatGPT because doing so would force it to create an internal system for reporting other violent users to the authorities.
That, in turn, the lawsuits allege, would expose the threat its signature product routinely poses to human life, which could complicate a coming initial public offering.
The suits include a 12-year-old girl hospitalized after being shot in the head, five students aged 12 to 13 who were killed, and Shannda Aviugana-Durand, a mother of two and educational assistant who was fatally shot. Two young victims were so disfigured that families identified them by their clothing.
The families are all seeking punitive damages and the recovery of their legal costs, with those who lost loved ones seeking predeath economic losses.
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