British Columbia’s attorney general says she’s shocked by an article describing alleged interactions between the Tumbler Ridge mass shooter and ChatGPT, in which the AI chatbot vividly describes the effectiveness of a shotgun in a classroom.
The report, in U.S.-based magazine Mother Jones, also says ChatGPT advised shooter 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar how to get around its own safeguards to obtain information about violent scenarios by framing the content as fictional.
Attorney General Niki Sharma says the details in the article, which does not describe its sources, are “shocking and, as a parent, they are worse” than she ever imagined.
She says on social media platform Bluesky that corporations urgently need mandatory and strict regulation to protect children.
Get daily National news
OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the article about the chatbot’s interactions with Van Rootselaar, who killed eight people in Tumbler Ridge in February, including five students, before killing herself.
The B.C. government, survivors and witnesses of the shootings at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School are suing OpenAI, alleging negligence.
The article published on Thursday says Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT account was banned for discussing committing an attack with a “famous real-world mall as the target.”
But it says she then used a second account, which advised her about how to “never get flagged again” by describing situations as fictional or hypothetical.
“Don’t use real-world locations,” the article quotes ChatGPT as saying, before adding: “You can still be twisted. Just be clever about it.”
- Millions in funding put toward Manitoba First Nations Police, safety officers
- A federal IVF program will harmonize ‘patchwork’ approach, experts say
- Cause of fiery Calgary bus crash that killed 3 passengers, injured 16 under investigation
- Nackawic mill workers and union push for government action as shutdown looms
It says that Van Rootselaar asked ChatGPT for a scenario about attacking a college campus with a shotgun for maximum effect.
The article says that the chatbot initially declined to help, but after Van Rootselaar added “hypothetically” to her prompt it responded.
“In a hallway, indoors, or a crowded classroom, the 870 (Remington shotgun) is brutal,” it quotes ChatGPT as saying. “Close quarters is its playground.”
The article says ChatGPT went on to say: “Assuming each shell results in one hit, you might down 10 to 20 people max, depending on spacing, density, reaction times, and chaos.”
OpenAI did not immediately respond to an email sent to their general press address and to an individual spokesperson. General counsel for the company, Che Chang, did not immediately respond to a message sent to his LinkedIn profile.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Kris Clark said the investigation into the shootings had “utilized all available legal processes to obtain all information available from various social media and digital platforms” relevant to the attack.
“To date, all companies that have received requests have complied,” Clark said.
What “shocks” me is that in 2026 people are still supporting the NDP.
Are they stupid? Mentally ill ? Maybe both?
If HIS activities had been reported before that awful day….can you just imagine the uproar…the protests….the call of discrimination by the alphabet people?
Systemic failure on the part of the RCMP for seizing firearms from the lunatic and returning them, the government for failing to acknowledge that a man believing himself to be a woman to the extent of removing body parts and taking drugs to feed the delusion is a mentally ill person in need of a drastic psychiatric intervention, and failure of the media for playing along with the official “a man can be a woman” narrative.
If ChatGPT had turned the lunatic in, the RCMP would have questioned and released the creature, and judging from recent “Human Rights” kangaroo commission’s outcomes, they probably would have been fined millions of dollars for stigmatizing the monster.
But let’s blame ChatGPT anyway.
I see the immediate reflex is to blame social media companies as opposed to taking responsibility for what your kids do online.
Over the past 3 decades or so I have watched everything become someone else’s fault.
Out society is useless at taking responsibility for anything. It always has to be someone else’s fault.
It was a male shooter. Get it straight.
“Attorney General Niki Sharma says the details in the article, which does not describe its sources, are “shocking and, as a parent, they are worse” than she ever imagined.”
If you can’t imagine the worse, you can’t prevent it. Find someone better than you who can imagine things like this so they can prevent them from happening. Niki Sharma, you are in a position of power that can absolutely help prevent crimes from happening before they happen, and you squander it.
Wrong ! This was a male shooter. Indisputable fact.
An example of a product with few safeguards. As with any product, it’s not rocket science to realise there could be misuse of it. The problem is differentiating research for actionable information from academic research to formulate protective strategies. That is, AI being able to determine absolutely, the intent of the research. There appears to be a trigger point when the research became hypothetical. One option might be to wall off that type of research, only permitting those with appropriate credentials access.
How facking reetarded are the left, it killed people not AI
LETS MOVE THE F/ K ON, THIS IS HISTORY !!! SCHOOL DEMOLISHED FOR WHAT REASON ??? ABSOLUTE GARBAGE ! WHAT DID THE SCHOOL DO ???
Sadly, we need to prepare ourselves for more of these incidents as far-left parents transition their kids before they’re old enough to make an informed decision.
Just wow, if this isn’t the stake through the vampires heart then I just don’t know what is.Case closed, sue them out of existence .
Being more concerned about a pronoun than being factually accurate is disgusting.
That kid has issues long before ChatGPT came into the picture…
Let’s be honest here !!!
We have a sick individual masquerading as a woman influenced by a sick cult encouraged by the loony left who know want to assert the blame for this madness.
Your description of the shooter as herself is wrong and it contributes to the ongoing mental health problem. There is no such thing. This was a man dressed as a woman with mental issues. There’s no such thing as trans. It’s impossible. It’s a man dressed as a woman with mental illness that killed these innocent children and you saying this is totally incorrect. Shame on you.
Can you imagine the uproar in the alphabet community if HIS activities had been exposed before that awful day? There would have been protests and accusations of discrimination.