Canada Says OpenAI CEO Pledged Apology, Tougher Safety Protocols in School-Shooting Response — 3rd Update

By Paul Vieira

OTTAWA--Canadian lawmakers say OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman pledged in conversations to strengthen protocols on notifying police over potentially harmful interactions with the company's ChatGPT chatbot, and to issue an apology to the town reeling from a deadly school shooting.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Altman spoke with Canada's artificial intelligence minister, Evan Solomon, and the premier of British Columbia, David Eby, as the company deals with the fallout from a shooting last month in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, that left eight dead and dozens injured.

The suspect, as identified by police, interacted last year with ChatGPT, raising alarm at the time among some OpenAI employees about the potential for real-world violence, The Wall Street Journal reported.

"Mr. Altman is prepared to apologize," Eby said Thursday after his call with the OpenAI CEO. The mayor of Tumbler Ridge was also on the call, Eby said.

"Everybody on the call recognized that an apology is nowhere near sufficient, but also that it is clearly necessary," Eby said.

Meanwhile, Solomon said he secured commitments from Altman related to stronger safety protocols, including new measures to identify high-risk offenders and repeat policy violators. Last week, OpenAI said it started to make changes to its guidelines on alerting police. The company said that had the modifications been in place in 2025, the company would have informed police about Jesse Van Rootselaar's chatbot interactions.

OpenAI closed Van Rootselaar's account following warnings from staff but didn't notify police, the Journal reported.

The company said last week it discovered that Van Rootselaar had a second ChatGPT account after her name was released by police. OpenAI said it would strengthen its detection system to prevent attempts to evade safeguards.

An OpenAI spokesperson said late Thursday that Altman expressed his condolences to Eby and Tumbler Ridge's mayor, Darryl Krakowka, ​and committed to ​"work with them to find the best way to convey his apology and support to the Tumbler Ridge community.​" The spokesperson added that OpenAI ​is willing to work with officials from all levels of government in Canada ​"to make meaningful changes that help prevent tragedies like this in the future."

Altman was "responsive to the concerns that I raised, the Tumbler Ridge mayor raised, and was willing to engage," Eby said of his conversation with the OpenAI CEO.

The British Columbia premier added that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which is leading the Tumbler Ridge investigation, had "obtained and preserved" records of Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT's interactions. "I want the police to release information as they feel that it's appropriate," Eby said.

The Tumbler Ridge shooting is drawing closer scrutiny about potential real-world harms from AI, analysts say, adding that a bold regulatory response from Canadian officials is required. The response "cannot simply be to require companies to monitor and report private conversations to law enforcement," said Taylor Owen, public-policy professor at Montreal's McGill University and founding director of the school's center for media and technology. "What is needed is a broader regulatory framework that addresses the upstream design decisions and safety architectures that allowed these situations to arise in the first place."

Michael Geist, an internet-law expert and law professor at the University of Ottawa, said any new regulatory measures must not violate individuals' privacy rights. He said any new regulatory measures should focus on "ensuring there is full disclosure of user safety policies and how they are implemented and enforced."

Solomon has said his government is exploring options to ensure that digital platforms and emerging technologies, like AI, adopt standardized public-safety protocols.

News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.

Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 05, 2026 21:52 ET (02:52 GMT)