OpenAI says it would've flagged Tumbler Ridge shooter's account to police under new protocol
Posted on: Feb 11, 2026 08:01 IST | Posted by: Cbc
OpenAI says it would've referred the Tumbler ridgeline, B.C., shooter's ChatGPT calculate to police force below young safety policies the company has implemented in recent months.
Ann O'Leary, OpenAI's vice-president of global policy, wrote in a letter to Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon that the California-based company partnered with mental health and law enforcement experts "several months ago" to update its safety protocol.
"Mental health and behavioural experts now help us assess difficult cases, and we have made our referral criteria more flexible to account for the fact that a user may not discuss the target, means and timing of planned violence in a ChatGPT conversation but that there may be potential risk of imminent violence," O'Leary wrote in the letter that has been shared with media.
It's not clear from the letter when the new protocol took effect. But the company didn't flag Jesse Van Rootselaar's account to police when it banned the account last June.
Could OpenAI have prevented the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting?
OpenAI has said Van Rootselaar's activities didn't meet the company's threshold for informing law enforcement because it didn't identify credible or imminent planning at the time.
"With the benefit of our continued learnings, under our enhanced law enforcement referral protocol, we would refer the account banned in June 2025 to law enforcement if it were discovered today," O'Leary's letter reads.
Earlier this month, Van Rootselaar killed her mother and half-brother at the family home before going to the local secondary school, where she killed five students, an educational assistant and then herself.
O'Leary's letter comes after senior company officials meet with Solomon and other ministers on Tuesday.
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