with some fair due processes for all the people, to work out disagreement.
Family members of the victims of one of Canada’s worst mass shootings are suing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in a California court, and will likely be seeking more than US$1 billion in damages, a lawyer handling the case says.
Several lawsuits were filed in a San Francisco court on April 29, two-and-a-half months after the Feb. 10 shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., that left nine people dead and 27 injured.
The lawsuits allege wrongful death, negligence, and product liability, and accuse OpenAI leaders of aiding and abetting the shooting, saying they failed to notify police after flagging disturbing content from the shooter. It alleges the artificial intelligence company kept quiet because contacting the authorities would have revealed the extent of violence-related dialogue on its ChatGPT platform, potentially threatening the firm’s pursuit of a nearly $1 trillion initial public offering.
OpenAI is not yet a publicly traded company and has not officially filed its IPO paperwork, but it reached an $852 billion post-money valuation following a funding round that concluded in March.
The victims and their families also contend that OpenAI deliberately chose not to inform the police because implementing adequate safety measures to ChatGPT would result in a loss of market share for the company.
The plaintiffs also allege that the deactivation of the shooter’s account was deceptive because the company offered guidance on how users can create new accounts.