British Columbia Premier David Eby is calling on OpenAI to clarify why and how it decided not to warn police about the Tumbler Ridge shooter’s online activity.
“From the outside, it looks like OpenAI had the opportunity to prevent this tragedy,” said Eby on Monday.
A Wall Street Journal report published Feb. 21 said the California-based company decided not to inform authorities about Jesse Van Rootselaar’s interactions with its ChatGPT chatbot months before the Feb. 10 shootings.
The report said some employees urged OpenAI leaders to alert Canadian law enforcement about Van Rootselaar’s behaviour, but company leaders ultimately decided not to do so. The WSJ cited an OpenAI spokesperson as saying the company banned the 18-year-old’s account but determined her activity did not meet the threshold for reporting to law enforcement.
Six children and two women were killed in the attacks at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and a home in the small northeastern community. A 12-year-old girl and a 19-year-old woman were sent to hospital with serious injuries and are still recovering.
RCMP said Van Rootselaar was found dead at the school from a self-inflicted wound.
Eby said representatives from OpenAI had unrelated meetings with senior B.C. government officials around the time of the shooting, but the company did not raise concerns about Van Rootselaar’s online activity during those discussions.
He said that on Feb. 10, OpenAI officials met with MLA Rick Glumac, B.C.’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence and New Technologies, to discuss the company’s interest in opening a Canadian office.
Another meeting followed the next day between OpenAI and officials from the Premier’s Office to further discuss the possibility of opening an office in B.C.
“During that meeting, and the previous meeting, there were no revelations from OpenAI that they had any information to be concerned about,” said Eby.
He said it wasn’t until Feb. 12, about two days after the shooting, that OpenAI reached out to the Premier’s Office again, asking to be connected to the RCMP.
B.C. RCMP spokesperson Staff Sgt. Kris Clark confirmed Monday that the platform reached out to investigators after the incident.
“As part of the investigation, digital and physical evidence is being collected, prioritized, and methodically processed. This includes a thorough review of the content on electronic devices, as well as social media and online activities,” Clark said in an email to Vista News.
“The time frame is what makes me angry,” Eby told reporters Monday. “The day to ask for the referral to the RCMP was when staff were coming forward and saying, ‘We have very serious information concerning a potential shooting in British Columbia, Canada.’ It would have saved lives.”
Eby called on the federal government to establish a clear threshold requiring AI companies to report individuals who may be plotting violence online.
B.C. Conservative Kelowna–Mission MLA Gavin Dew, the critic for jobs, economic development, innovation and AI, said Monday that more information is needed about OpenAI’s policies and legal obligations to report suspicious activity.
“Obviously, there’s a really important balance to be struck between the privacy rights of Canadians and the desire to try to get ahead of situations like this,” Dew said.
He added that it is not yet clear what information OpenAI had about Van Rootselaar’s online activity. “It’s really important that we get that information in the days ahead so we can have a conversation that is sober and policy-minded, and not allow sensationalism to rule the day,” he said.
Dew noted that a B.C. government bill targeting social media companies for online harms has been paused since 2024, but he would not speculate on whether the legislation would have made a difference in the Tumbler Ridge case.
The Public Health Accountability and Cost Recovery Act, also known as Bill 12, would have allowed the province to sue social media companies for harms caused by their algorithms. In April 2024, the government said it would put the bill on hold while consulting with social media companies Meta, TikTok, Snap and X.
Eby said his government is not currently looking to revive Bill 12 but added he would support future online harms legislation from the federal government.
Federal Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon said on Parliament Hill Monday he was “deeply disturbed” by reports that police were not informed about OpenAI’s concerns regarding Van Rootselaar’s online activity.
Solomon said his team met with OpenAI representatives on Sunday and that he summoned the company’s senior safety team to meet with him in Ottawa on Tuesday.
