OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has apologized to the British Columbia community of Tumbler Ridge for not alerting law enforcement about a man who shot and killed eight people and wounded 25 others in the town. The February shooting was one of the deadliest in recent Canadian history.
The killer, Jesse Van Rootselaar, had his ChatGPT account banned for abuse, but OpenAI did not refer the case to the authorities at the time.
“I deeply regret that we did not notify law enforcement about the banned account in June,” Altman said in a letter to the city’s residents.
“While I know words will never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the damage and irreparable loss your community has suffered.”
Moving forward, Altman said OpenAI will “work with all levels of government to ensure that something like this never happens again.”
according to The Wall Street JournalAbout a dozen OpenAI employees debated internally whether to report the suspect to authorities after OpenAI’s automated system flagged his activity. Van Rootselaar described various gun violence scenarios when using the tool. In February, a spokesperson for OpenAI confirmed that the company had flagged Van Rootselaar’s account, but determined that his use of the tool did not meet the necessary criteria to report the matter to law enforcement, meaning he did not pose a credible and imminent risk of serious physical harm to others.
This isn’t the first time ChatGPT has faced allegations of aiding in a mass shooting. Earlier this month, Florida’s attorney general took over criminal investigation OpenAI claimed that a chatbot helped plan the 2025 mass shooting at Florida State University that killed two people.
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according to The Washington Post, informant in a press conference, Attorney General James Uthmeier claimed that ChatGPT advises the shooter “which weapon to use, which weapon goes with which weapon, whether the weapon will be useful at close range.”
In that case, OpenAI spokeswoman Kate Waters told the Post that the shooting was a “tragedy” but that the chatbot was not responsible and simply provided factual answers with information “that can be found anywhere on the web.”
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