B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma said a report describing alleged ChatGPT interactions involving the Tumbler Ridge shooter is “shocking,” as the case remains before the courts.
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B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma said she was “shocked” by details in a report describing alleged interactions between the Tumbler Ridge mass shooter and ChatGPT, including claims the chatbot discussed how to carry out a violent attack and how to avoid safety safeguards.
Sharma made the comments in a post on the social media platform Bluesky, saying the information was “shocking and, as a parent, they are worse” than she had expected. She said corporations need “mandatory and strict regulation” to protect children.
The report, published in the U.S.-based magazine Mother Jones, alleges that the shooter, identified as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, carried out a line of conversations with ChatGPT. It also alleges that the chatbot provided guidance that framed violent scenarios as fictional or hypothetical to get around its own restrictions.
According to the report, Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT account was banned after the account was used to discuss committing an attack with a “famous real-world mall as the target.” The report states that she then used a second account that offered advice on how to “never get flagged again” by describing the content as fictional or hypothetical and avoiding real-world locations.
The report says Van Rootselaar asked the chatbot for a scenario involving an attack on a college campus using a shotgun, seeking “maximum effect.” It alleges that ChatGPT initially declined to assist but responded after the prompt included “hypothetically.”
The report further claims the chatbot described close-quarters use of a shotgun as “brutal,” and said close quarters were “its playground.” It also quotes the chatbot as suggesting that, assuming each shell resulted in one hit, a shooter might down “10 to 20” people depending on factors such as spacing, density, reaction times and chaos.
Separately, the B.C. government, along with survivors and witnesses from the Tumbler Ridge shootings, are suing OpenAI, alleging negligence. The civil case follows the February killings at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where Van Rootselaar killed eight people, including five students, before taking her own life.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Kris Clark said in relation to the investigation that it “utilized all available legal processes to obtain all information available from various social media and digital platforms.” Clark added that, “to date, all companies that have received requests have complied.”
In the wake of the allegations, Sharma’s comments put the focus on how AI companies address child safety and harmful instructions, while the litigation against OpenAI continues to move through the legal system.
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