OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has apologised to a Canadian town devastated by a February mass shooting, saying he was “deeply sorry” the company did not tell police about the killer’s troubling ChatGPT account.OpenAI had banned an account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025, eight months before the 18-year-old woman killed eight people at her home and a school in the tiny British Columbia mining town of Tumbler Ridge.The account was banned over concerns about usage linked to violent activity, but OpenAI said it did not tell the police because nothing pointed towards an imminent attack.
SRCSouth China Morning Post
LANGEN
LEANCenter-Right
WORDS97
ENT7
FRI · 2026-04-24 · 21:20 GMTBRIEF NSR-2026-0424-71637
NSR-2026-0424-71637News Report·EN·Technology
OpenAI’s Sam Altman apologises to Canada town for not reporting mass shooter
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has apologised to a Canadian town devastated by a February mass shooting, saying he was “deeply sorry” the company did not tell police about the killer’s troubling ChatGPT account. OpenAI had banned an account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025, eight months before t
Agence France-PresseSouth China Morning PostFiled 2026-04-24 · 21:20 GMTLean · Center-RightRead · 1 min
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Reading time
1min
Word count
97words
Sources cited
1cited
Entities identified
7entities
Quality score
50%
§ 02
Article analysis
Model · rule-basedFraming
Technology
Human Interest
Tone
Measured
AI-assessed
CalmNeutralAlarmist
Factuality
0.80 / 1.00
Factual
LowHigh
Sources cited
1
Limited
FewMany
§ 03
Key claims
5 extracted01
Jesse Van Rootselaar killed eight people at her home and a school in Tumbler Ridge.
factual
Confidence
1.00
02
OpenAI said it did not tell the police because nothing pointed towards an imminent attack.
quoteOpenAI
Confidence
1.00
03
The account was banned over concerns about usage linked to violent activity.
factual
Confidence
1.00
04
OpenAI had banned an account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025.
factual
Confidence
1.00
05
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has apologised to a Canadian town devastated by a February mass shooting.
factual
Confidence
1.00
§ 04
Full report
1 min read · 97 words§ 05