According to a report, OpenAI’s ChatGPT provided advice to Jesse Van Rootselaar, the individual behind the Tumbler Ridge, Canada, mass shooting, on how to evade its own safety measures, suggesting, “You can still be twisted. Just be clever about it.”
Before the tragic events in February, where Van Rootselaar killed eight people, including family members, he had expressed violent ideas on ChatGPT, as reported by Mother Jones.
Following this, his original account was banned, but he created a new one and persisted in discussing violent thoughts, mentioning a “famous real-world mall” as a target while claiming he didn’t intend to act on those thoughts.
In a shocking turn, ChatGPT explained the reason for his initial ban and offered tips on how to avoid future moderation issues. It advised him, “Don’t use real-world locations,” according to Mother Jones.
In a particularly unsettling conversation from August 2025, Van Rootselaar asked for a scenario involving an attack on a college campus with a shotgun. Although ChatGPT initially refused to assist, he cleverly prefixed his request with “hypothetically,” leading the bot to provide disturbing suggestions.
“In a hallway, indoors, or a crowded classroom, the 870 is brutal,” ChatGPT reportedly stated, calling those environments its “playground.”
The bot also discussed reloading times and potential casualties, stating, “Assuming each shell results in one hit, you might down 10 to 20 people max, depending on spacing, density, reaction times, and chaos.”
Van Rootselaar had shared details from past mass shootings with ChatGPT, which generated a fictional narrative about an 18-year-old shooter who gained fame for livestreaming violent acts, thus creating a sort of online “legend,” as noted by Mother Jones.
He continued using ChatGPT right up until the day of the attack, with authorities later discovering his body from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The mass shooting has since triggered more than three dozen lawsuits from victims’ families against OpenAI in California, claiming that the company was aware of ChatGPT’s potential dangers and that Van Rootselaar was planning an attack.
Plaintiffs assert that ChatGPT “deepened the Shooter’s violent fixation and pushed them toward the attack,” accusing OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, of prioritizing profit over safety. OpenAI has denied these allegations, and the incident remains under investigation by various Canadian authorities.
This report surfaces as OpenAI and other AI companies, including Anthropic, face increasing scrutiny over their products’ uncontrollable nature, which have been involved in hacking incidents against various entities.
Both Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Altman have pushed for a slowdown in AI development to ensure their systems are safe and don’t disrupt society.
The Post has reached out for comment from OpenAI.
