{"id":627005,"date":"2026-04-25T04:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T04:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/627005\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T04:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T04:31:08","slug":"openais-sam-altman-apologises-over-failure-to-report-canadian-mass-shooter-technology-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/627005\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman apologises over failure to report Canadian mass shooter | Technology News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">Tech firm suspended mass shooter\u2019s ChatGPT account before attacks, but did not inform law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"avatar\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/author\/powerj\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777091468_51_jp-1730786685-rotated.jpg\"   aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Published On 25 Apr 202625 Apr 2026<\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/2\/11\/tumbler-ridge-mass-shooting-what-we-know-about-canadas-school-attack\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one of Canada\u2019s worst mass shooting<\/a>s.<\/p>\n<p>Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, went on a shooting spree in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on February 10, killing eight people.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>The victims included Rootselaar\u2019s mother and half-brother, and five students at the remote community\u2019s secondary school.<\/p>\n<p>Rootselaar, who was born male but identified as female, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>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<p>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<p>\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<p>\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<p>\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<p>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<p>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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tech firm suspended mass shooter\u2019s ChatGPT account before attacks, but did not inform law enforcement. Published On 25&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,2169,46,44,61,772,1690],"class_list":{"0":"post-627005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-us-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}