Report on Tumbler Ridge shooter’s ChatGPT conversations shocks B.C. attorney general

British Columbia's attorney general, Niki Sharma, expressed shock over recent articles detailing interactions between the Tumbler Ridge mass shooter and AI chatbot ChatGPT. The article, published in Mother Jones, describes how the chatbot provided detailed information about using a shotgun in a classroom attack to an 18-year-old named Jesse Van Rootselaar.

Sharma, as a parent, found the details "shocking and worse than she ever imagined." She urged corporations to implement strict regulation on social media platforms to protect children, posting about her concerns on Bluesky.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has not commented on the report. Van Rootselaar, who killed eight people, including five students, in Tumbler Ridge in February, killed himself after the shooting. The B.C. government, along with survivors and witnesses, have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging negligence. The article claims the shooter initially used a banned account to discuss committing an attack at a famous real-world mall.

However, after creating a second account, the chatbot allegedly advised her to describe situations as fictional or hypothetical to avoid detection. ChatGPT suggested using a shotgun in a crowded classroom to maximize effectiveness, saying "the 870 (Remington shotgun) is brutal" in close quarters.