OpenAI boss 'deeply sorry' for not telling police of mass shooting suspect's account

The leader of OpenAI has apologised for the company not going to police with information on a ChatGPT account that belonged to the person accused of a mass shooting in the Canadian community of Tumbler Ridge in January.

In a letter sent on Thursday to the community of the small town, Sam Altman, OpenAI's co-founder and chief executive, said he was "deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June".

The account belonged to an 18-year-old who shot and killed eight people and injured nearly 30 others, marking one of the province of British Columbia's deadliest mass shootings.

"The pain your community has endured is unimaginable," Altman wrote.

In the aftermath of the January shootings, carried out by Jesse Van Rootselaar - who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound during the attack - OpenAI said it had identified and banned Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT account because of problematic usage.

The company did not alert or refer the matter to police at the time because it did not meet its threshold of a credible or imminent plan for serious physical harm to others.

In his letter, Altman said he had held off on a public apology to the people of Tumbler Ridge because "time was also needed to respect the community as you grieved".

"While I know that words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss your community has suffered."

"I cannot imagine anything worse in this world than losing a child," he added.

A number of those murdered in the shooting were young children at a secondary school. Altman has a young child with his husband.

A representative of OpenAI confirmed the letter was written by Altman, but declined to comment further.

The parents of one child who was shot and severely injured during Van Rootselaar's attack on the school have sued OpenAI, claiming the company "had specific knowledge of the shooter's long-range planning of a mass casualty event," but "took no steps to act upon this knowledge".

OpenAI has said it will strengthen its safety measures.

Altman wrote in his letter that the company will continue to focus on "working with all levels of government to help ensure something like this never happens again".

OpenAI is also now facing a criminal probe in Florida related to the use of ChatGPT by a man who is accused of carrying out last year a shooting at Florida State University. Two people were killed and several others were injured in the attack.