ChatGPT-maker OpenAI safety representatives summoned to Canada after school shooting

TORONTO — Representatives of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI have been summoned to Ottawa after the company said last week that it considered but didn't alert Canadian police about the activities of a person who months later committed one of the worst school shootings in the country’s history.

Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said Monday that he expects the company’s top safety representatives to explain its protocols and how it decides to forward cases to law enforcement when he meets with them on Tuesday.

OpenAI said last June that the company identified the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar via abuse detection efforts for “furtherance of violent activities.”

The San Francisco technology company said that it considered whether to refer the account to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, but determined at the time that the account activity didn't meet a threshold for referral to law enforcement. OpenAI banned the account in June for violating its usage policy.

The 18-year-old killed eight people in a remote part of British Columbia this month and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

OpenAI said that the threshold for referring a user to law enforcement is whether the case involves an imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm to others. The company said that it didn't identify credible or imminent planning. The Wall Street Journal first reported OpenAI’s revelation, reporting that about a dozen employees debated informing Canadian police.

OpenAI said that it wasn’t until after learning of the school shooting that employees reached out to RCMP with information on the individual and their use of ChatGPT

Solomon said that he contacted OpenAI immediately when he read the reports that OpenAI didn't contact law enforcement in a timely manner.

“I have summoned the senior safety team from OpenAI to come here to Ottawa from the United States,” Solomon said. “Canadians expect, first of all, that their children particularly are kept safe and these organizations act in a responsible manner.”

Solomon said that some of his representatives already met with some OpenAI officials on Sunday. He wouldn't say whether the Canadian government intends to regulate AI chatbots like ChatGPT, but insists that all options are on the table.

Police said Van Rootselaar first killed her mother and stepbrother at the family home before attacking the nearby school. Van Rootselaar had a history of mental health contacts with police.

The motive for the shooting remains unclear.

The town of Tumbler Ridge in the Canadian Rockies is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta. Police said the victims included a 39-year-old teaching assistant and five students, ages 12 to 13.

The attack was Canada’s deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.