Tech firm suspended mass shooter\u2019s ChatGPT account before attacks, but did not inform law enforcement.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 25 Apr 2026<\/span>25 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has apologised over his company\u2019s failure to warn authorities about the concerning online activities of a teen who went on to commit one of Canada\u2019s worst mass shootings.<\/p>\n Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, went on a shooting spree in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on February 10, killing eight people.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The victims included Rootselaar\u2019s mother and half-brother, and five students at the remote community\u2019s secondary school.<\/p>\n Rootselaar, who was born male but identified as female, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.<\/p>\n OpenAI said after the attacks that\u00a0Rootselaar\u2019s\u00a0ChatGPT account had been flagged internally\u00a0the previous June\u00a0for\u00a0misuse\u00a0\u201cin\u00a0furtherance of violent activities\u201d, resulting\u00a0in its suspension.<\/p>\n The San Francisco-based AI company said at the time that it had not informed authorities, as Rootselaar\u2019s usage of the chatbot had not met the threshold of posing a credible or imminent threat of harm to others.<\/p>\n In a letter shared on Friday by the Tumbler RidgeLines news site and British Columbia Premier David Eby, Altman acknowledged that OpenAI should have alerted law enforcement to Rootselaar\u2019s suspension.<\/p>\n \u201cI am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June. While I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss your community has suffered,\u201d Altman wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cI reaffirm the commitment I made to the Mayor and the Premier to find ways to prevent tragedies like this in the future,\u201d\u00a0Altman added.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing forward, our focus will continue to be on working with all levels of government to help ensure something like this never happens\u00a0again.\u201d<\/p>\n Altman\u2019s statement of regret came after Eby said last month that the tech CEO had agreed to apologise to the Tumbler Ridge community over OpenAI\u2019s failure to flag Rootselaar as a threat.<\/p>\n In his letter, Altman said Eby and Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka had conveyed \u201cthe anger, sadness, and concern\u201d being felt in the community in their discussions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe agreed a public apology was necessary, but that time was also needed to respect the community as you grieved. I share this letter with the understanding that everyone grieves in their own way and in their own time,\u201d Altman wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to express my deepest condolences to the entire community. No one should ever have to endure a tragedy like this. I cannot imagine anything worse in this world than losing a child.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tech firm suspended mass shooter\u2019s ChatGPT account before attacks, but did not inform law enforcement. Published On 25 Apr 202625 Apr 2026 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has apologised over his company\u2019s failure to warn authorities about the concerning online activities of a teen who went on to commit one of Canada\u2019s worst mass shootings. Jesse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/jp-1730786685-rotated.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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