Seven families of victims killed or injured in a mass shooting in Canada have filed lawsuits against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in a California court, accusing him and the company of ignoring the shooter's troubling interactions with ChatGPT.

Eight people were killed, including six children, when 18-year-old Jessie Van Rootselaar opened fire at a secondary school in the Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, in February.

Media reports have since revealed that Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT activity was flagged by OpenAI's safety team months before the attack for references to gun violence, but the company did not alert local police.

Last week, Altman apologised to families of the victims.

"I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement," Altman wrote in an open letter published by local news outlet Tumbler RidgeLines.

"While I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss your community has suffered."

In a statement responding to the lawsuits, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company has "a zero-tolerance policy for using our tools to assist in committing violence."

The spokesperson added that OpenAI had "already strengthened our safeguards", including better assessment and escalation of "potential threats of violence."

The company also published a blog on Tuesday outlining how OpenAI responds to users who display potentially dangerous behaviour on ChatGPT.

The new legal actions were filed in a California court on Wednesday by a joint legal team from the US and Canada.

It will replace a previous lawsuit filed in a Canadian court by the family of one surviving victim, 12-year-old Maya Gebala, which is being voluntarily withdrawn.

Gebala remains in hospital after being shot three times, in the head, neck and cheek.

Jay Edelson, the lawyer representing the families and community members in the new lawsuits, said he expects to file more than two dozen legal actions on behalf of Tumbler Ridge victims and community members against OpenAI.

He added he will be requesting trials by jury in each case.

"We feel very comfortable making a case in front of a jury," he told the BBC.

The lawsuits accuse OpenAI and its senior leadership, including Altman, of negligence and aiding and abetting the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting by failing to alert law enforcement of the suspect's ChatGPT activities prior to the attack.

One lawsuit naming Gebala and her family alleges that that OpenAI "had actual knowledge" of the shooter's intention to carry out an attack through conversations with ChatGPT, where the shooter described "scenarios involving gun violence".

The conversations were flagged by a 12-person safety team at OpenAI, who recommended that the suspect be reported to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Edelson said.

Executive leadership at OpenAI, however, vetoed that decision, the lawsuit alleges.

It further alleges that OpenAI's senior leadership made the call not to alert police in order to protect the valuation and reputation of the $850bn (£630bn) company.

"They did the math and decided that the safety of the children of Tumbler Ridge was an acceptable risk," the lawsuit states.

It also alleges that OpenAI lied about the suspect being banned from the platform after the troubling activity was flagged, arguing that the company makes it easy for users to create new accounts.

The suspect, the lawsuit states, made another account under the same name and "continued using ChatGPT to plan the attack".

In a statement to the BBC, OpenAI refuted this and said it revokes access to its services from banned users, which may include disabling their account and taking steps to stop them from opening new accounts.

The suspect died in the 10 February attack from a self-inflicted gun shot wound.

Edelson told the BBC that he has requested the suspect's chat logs from OpenAI but was refused access, though he believes they will be obtained through the lawsuits.

"We're going to put the jury in the room when the decision was made to not tell the Canadian authorities," Edelson said.

"We're going to show them how people were jumping up and down saying we need to protect this town, and we're going to show them how Sam Altman and OpenAI routinely make these decisions to put their own interests first."

OpenAI had previously promised Canadian officials that it will strengthen its safety measures in response to the Tumbler Ridge attack.

Altman wrote in his letter that the company will continue to focus on "working with all levels of government to help ensure something like this never happens again".

OpenAI is also facing a criminal probe in Florida related to the use of ChatGPT by a man who is accused of carrying out last year a shooting at Florida State University. Two people were killed and several others were injured in the attack.

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A mother has been found guilty of murdering her 19-day-old daughter, who died with "catastrophic" injuries including broken ribs and three skull fractures.

Nicole Blain claimed she found baby Thea Wilson lying on the floor of her Greenock flat on 14 July 2023, and had suggested the newborn had been dropped by another child.

But jurors at the High Court in Glasgow found the 30-year-old guilty of killing her young daughter.

The trial heard evidence that some of Thea's injuries had been caused by blunt force trauma, while others indicated she may have been shaken.

The judge, Lord Scott, said Blain would be jailed for life when she is sentenced next month.

However, he said he wanted more information before deciding how long she will spend in jail before she can apply for parole.

Blain sobbed loudly before, during and after the verdict was read out.

As she was remanded in custody and led away she shouted over to a friend: "Tell my dad I love him."

The trial heard that Blain had said she was struggling with post-natal depression after Thea's birth.

On the day of Thea's death, she was visited in the morning by a social worker who said the baby was in her crib, and that the mother had complained of feeling tired.

Blain was due to take Thea to visit her paternal grandmother Laura Wilson in Ayrshire later that day.

But early in the afternoon Blain called Wilson's mobile phone. The call was answered by her husband Alan, who told the court he had heard a child screaming in the background.

He told the court: "I had never heard anything like it.

"It was piercing and extremely loud. I thought it was an older child doing it, but then I realised it was the baby who was screaming.

"She [Blain] did mumble 'I do not know what to do'. She did not sound right. I said: 'Hang up and call an ambulance'."

Blain also spoke on the phone to Thea's grandmother, saying she had found the baby with a bump on her head.

Later, when they met at the hospital, Blain told her another child who was in the flat "had done it".

Blain had also spoken on the phone earlier to a support worker, telling her that another child had taken Thea out of the cot and dropped her.

When the support worker arrived at the flat she dialled 999 after seeing that Thea was cold, not making any sounds and looked an "awful colour".

Giving evidence at her trial, Blain denied trying to throw another child "under the bus" by blaming them for what happened.

She claimed Thea had been sleeping in a bedside crib and she herself had taken a nap, but was woken by a neighbour ringing the doorbell.

She said it was only when she returned to the bedroom that she noticed Thea was lying on the floor without her nappy or the blanket that had been covering her.

Blain said she did not know exactly what had taken place because she was asleep, but she believed it must have been a "tragic accident".

During the trial the jury was shown text messages between Blain and Thea's grandmother that suggested she was struggling to cope after the birth.

Thea was found to have two broken ribs and three skull fractures caused by blunt force trauma, as well as other injures that indicated she may have been shaken.

A pathologist told the trial they were the type of injuries normally associated with a car crash, and unlikely to have been caused by another child.

A doctor who treated Thea in hospital described her injuries as "non-survivable".

She said the baby had suffered extensive bruising and swelling over her head, as well as scratches.

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Sir Keir Starmer has defended his record in government after Kemi Badenoch accused him of having "squandered his political capital" in the last Prime Minister's Questions before elections next week.

The Conservative leader said Sir Keir had presided over "one disaster after another" and was now focused on "saving his own skin".

The prime minister said Labour had delivered rights at work, security for renters and lifted half a million children out of poverty adding: "That's our mission, nothing is going to hold us back."

He said the Tories were playing "political games" – a reference to the party's attempt to launch an inquiry into whether the PM misled MPs over the appointment of Lord Mandelson.

On Tuesday evening, the House of Commons voted not to refer the prime minister to the Privileges Committee by 335 votes to 233.

The majority of Labour MPs voted against the motion, following a No 10 operation to rally support for the prime minister.

Sir Keir has rejected claims he misled the Commons about the vetting process for Lord Mandelson, who was appointed as the UK's ambassador to the US but sacked seven months into the job.

Badenoch said the prime minister had been reduced to "begging" his MPs for their support in the vote and drew a contrast with the weeks following the 2024 general election when she said the government benches were "full of sycophantic questions from adoring new MPs".

"This government is like a bad episode of Game Of Thrones," she said, and in a reference to Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, added: "His own people have turned against him and all the while, the prime minister is holed up in his castle, wetting himself about a visit from the King in the North."

The Conservative leader argued that the UK could not defend itself because too much money was being spent on welfare and the prime minister was unable to cut benefit bills because he had "squandered all his political capital saving his own skin".

The prime minister replied that the government was increasing defence spending to its highest level since the end of the Cold War.

He also said the government had introduce the youth guarantee aimed at helping young people into work.

Referring to the Privileges Committee vote on Tuesday, Sir Keir said that while he had been chairing a meeting on the war in the Middle East, Badenoch had been engaged in "a desperate, baseless political stunt".

Also during PMQs, Badenoch seized on rumours in Westminster of a government reshuffle in the wake of next week's elections.

The Conservative leader asked if the prime minister would "listen to the country and reshuffle the Chancellor?"

Sir Keir did not directly answer the question, highlighting falling interest rates before the war in Iran.

But the PM's failure to rule out sacking Rachel Reeves prompted Badenoch to declare the Chancellor was "toast".

Last year Downing Street said Reeves will remain in her role "for the whole of this Parliament". In a briefing to journalists after PMQs, the prime minister's political secretary tried to hose down rumours about the Chancellor's position.

"The position remains unchanged," he said.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey used one of his two allotted questions to ask about food security, following the war against Iran and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

He said food prices would rise by 10% this year as "farmers' costs soar" and urge the government to introduce a Good Food Bill, which the party has said would introduce long-term targets for food security and enable UK farmers to invest in food production.

Sir Keir said he had discussed the issue of food security during his meeting on Tuesday and added that the events in the Middle East would "affect every single one of our constituents".

He also attacked the Liberal Democrat leader for backing the Privileges Committee motion saying: "I expect frivolous accusations from the leader of the Opposition -clearly, I was wrong to expect anything better than from the man in the wetsuit" – a reference to Sir Ed's campaigning tactics.

In next week's elections, voters in Scotland and Wales will go to the polls to elect representatives in the national parliaments, while voters in England will elect councillors in around 5,000 local authority seats.

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