TORONTO:
Canada has summoned senior management from OpenAI to Ottawa to explain the company’s decision not to report suspicious online activity by a person who later killed eight people this month.
OpenAI has confirmed that its efforts to uncover abuse in June 2025 identified a ChatGPT account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old transgender woman who murdered her mother, brother and six people at a school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on February 10.
The company told AFP the account was identified through an investigative process that looks for use related to violent activity. The account was banned that month, but the company did not inform Canadian police at the time.
That decision was “very disturbing,” Canada’s Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon told reporters Monday in Ottawa. “I’ve called the senior security team from OpenAI in the US to come here to Ottawa,” Solomon said. “They will come here tomorrow (Tuesday) and we will hold a meeting to get an explanation of their security protocols,” he added.
OpenAI has said it uses a very high bar when deciding whether to involve law enforcement after identifying a suspicious account. As for Van Rootselaar, it decided not to inform Canadian police because her ChatGPT use did not point to credible or imminent planning of an attack.
“Our thoughts go out to everyone affected by the Tumbler Ridge tragedy,” the company said.
