Canadian Affairs
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OpenAI said Thursday that its current security protocols would have compelled the company to notify Canadian police about the ChatGPT account of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooter.
In June, OpenAI banned an account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old transgender woman who killed eight people in a tiny British Columbia mining town on February 10.
The account was banned over concerns about usage linked to violent activity, but OpenAI said it did not inform police because nothing pointed towards an imminent attack.
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Those revelations angered Ottawa, and Canada’s Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon summoned OpenAI leadership to a meeting on Tuesday to discuss its security policies.
In a letter addressed to Solomon on Thursday, OpenAI said it implemented various policy changes “several months ago,” including consulting “mental health, behavioral, and law enforcement experts” to identify when chatbot conversations amount to a credible risk.
“Under our enhanced law enforcement referral protocol, we would refer the account banned in June 2025 to law enforcement if it were discovered today,” OpenAI’s vice president for global policy, Ann M. O’Leary, wrote.
The company also pledged to establish direct contacts with Canadian law enforcement so police can be informed when OpenAI fears a ChatGPT user could be planning real world violence.
Van Rootselaar killed her mother and brother at the family home before heading to the local secondary school, where she shot dead five children and a teacher.
She died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after police entered the building.
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