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

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.