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Family sues ChatGPT-maker OpenAI over school shooting in Canada

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — The parents of a girl critically wounded in a school shooting in Canada alleged in a civil lawsuit Monday that ChatGPT-maker OpenAI knew the shooter was planning a mass attack.

OpenAI has said it considered but didn’t alert police about the activities of the person who months later committed one of Canada’s worst school shootings in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on Feb. 10.

OpenAI came forward to police after Jesse Van Roostselaar killed eight people and then herself last month, saying the attacker’s ChatGPT account had been closed but that she evaded the ban by having a second account.

The legal claim filed in the British Columbia Supreme Court alleged that OpenAI had “specific knowledge of the shooter utilizing ChatGPT to plan a mass casualty event like the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting.”

The lawsuit said OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT was used by the shooter as a trusted confidante, collaborator and ally, and it behaves willingly to assist users such as the shooter to plan a mass casualty event.

A spokeswoman from OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit said that as a result of the company’s conduct Maya Gebala was shot three times at close range, with one bullet hitting her head, another her neck and the third grazing her cheek. It said she has a catastrophic brain injury that will leave her with permanent cognitive and physical disabilities.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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