It’s been two months since the deadly shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has issued a formal apology for failing to report alarming conversations on the attacker’s ChatGPT account to the police.

The account belonging to attacker Jesse Van Rootselaar had been banned by OpenAI prior to the incident due to its potential for real-world violence. The company closed this account on the grounds that it violated its usage policies, but did not report the situation to law enforcement.

Official apology letter from Altman

In his letter, the full text of which was shared by Tumbler RidgeLines, Altman stated that he was deeply sorry for not reporting the banned account to the police in June. Stating that words will not be enough to compensate for the loss experienced, Altman emphasized that this apology is necessary to acknowledge the damage and irreversible loss experienced by society.

Stating in his letter that he met with Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowa and British Columbia Prime Minister David Eby, Altman stated that the mourning process should be respected for a public apology. Eby, on the other hand, stated in his post on

New security commitments for the future

OpenAI announced that it will cooperate with all levels of government to prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future. The company stated that it aims to develop new methods to prevent such incidents from recurring.

This commitment supports previous statements by OpenAI Vice President of Global Policy Ann O’Leary. O’Leary announced that the company would immediately notify authorities if “imminent and credible” threats were detected in ChatGPT conversations. This incident once again brought to the agenda the responsibilities of technology companies regarding user data and security policies.

How do you think technology companies should go about reporting risky content on their platforms to law enforcement?