Could AI firms be held responsible for mass shootings?

A series of Canadian lawsuits against OpenAI over its failure to alert authorities to threats made on its ChatGPT platform ahead of one of the worst mass shootings in Canada’s history has renewed scrutiny of AI firms’ privacy and security practices.The lawsuits have also prompted questions about potential legal accountability over how AI firms’ platforms are used.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3How an OpenAI ‘agent’ hacked Australia’s Medicare and what that meanslist 2 of 3What’s the US–China AI ‘hotline’ that Trump plans to pitch to Xi Jinping?list 3 of 320 countries propose global oversight body to manage AI dangersend of listThe most recent case to be filed is by the province of British Columbia, seven months after 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar – whose ChatGPT account was flagged for conversations that reportedly included gun violence – killed eight people in the small Canadian town of Tumbler Ridge. Victims included Van Rootselaar’s mother and half-brother, as well as five children and an educator at a secondary school. Van Rootselaar died by suicide.British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma said the lawsuit is “an important step toward seeking justice”. It...