B.C. premier says OpenAI CEO is prepared to apologize to Tumbler Ridge
B.C.’s premier says the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, is “prepared to apologize” to the Tumbler Ridge community following a deadly mass shooting on Feb. 10.
Premier David Eby had a call with Altman and Anne O’Leary, vice-president of Global Policy at OpenAI, on Thursday afternoon.
“During the meeting, I had two specific requests of Mr. Altman and of OpenAI,” Eby said following the call.
“The first was for an apology to the community, the parents, people affected. And the second was that OpenAI join us in a call to the federal government for a duty to report a minimum threshold across the country for all AI companies to try to find something positive out of the wreckage of this tragedy, that ideally we could prevent it from happening again.”
OpenAI said last week it would enhance its police referral and repeat offender detection practices, among other new safety measures, after it did not flag the Tumbler Ridge shooter’s ChatGPT activity to police last summer.
The company, which said it disabled Jesse VanRootselaar’s account in June over “violent” activity, said in a statement that it had also discovered a second ChatGPT account linked to her name after the shooting, despite a system that flags repeat policy offenders.
OpenAI ultimately alerted the RCMP to the shooter’s ChatGPT activity after the mass shooting on Feb. 10, in which eight people died and dozens more were injured. The shooter took her own life.
Eby said on Thursday that Altman is prepared to apologize for OpenAI’s role in the tragedy, even though it is not sufficient, but is necessary, he said.
Eby added that the mayor of Tumbler Ridge, Darryl Krakowka, will work with OpenAI to ensure that any public statements related to that apology are made appropriately and do not retraumatize the community of Tumbler Ridge.
However, he added he would not speak publicly about Altman’s feelings.
“On the second piece, Mr. Altman agreed that OpenAI would work with our team in the provincial government to work together to find ways to provide recommendations and advocacy to the federal government around a regulatory standard that would be effective and that could actually be implemented,” Eby said.
He added that he does not believe that OpenAI’s current standard is sufficient and there are inconsistent standards between companies when something reaches the threshold of reporting activity to authorities.
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“We’ll be pushing hard with the federal government for that to change, and there are a number of possible models,” Eby said. “We don’t prejudge any of them. What I can tell you right now is that the status quo doesn’t work, didn’t work and it very much presents the threat that it might fail again. And so, change needs to be made, and quite urgently.”
He said he cannot think of a better example of where regulation needs to start than to ensure that when companies have information that harm is going to be caused, there is a legal obligation to report it to the police.
“It’s not up to them about whether or not they bring the information forward; that is not up to them to create a panel of experts that deliberates it internally. That there is simply an obligation to bring it forward and police can determine whether or not they want to act on that information.”
Eby said there are still many issues to address.
“We also have serious questions about the guns, why they were in the house, and serious questions about our own mental health system,” he said. “And that we would have to continue to work to get those answers through a coroner’s inquest and whatever was available to get the answers for British Columbians.”
The Tumbler Ridge shooting has sparked questions about Canada’s firearm seizure regulations and so-called “red flag” laws that allow the removal of guns in a case of mental health concerns.
Officials have said previously that firearms were seized from the family home “a couple of years ago,” but were returned “at a later point in time” after a successful court petition to get them back.
B.C. RCMP commanding officer Dep. Comm. Dwayne McDonald has also said the two firearms believed to have been used — one at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, the other at VanRootselaar’s family home — had never been seized by police before Tuesday’s shooting.
Eby said on Thursday that he feels a real sense of urgency to get answers about the firearms used in the shooting.
“If we’re going to get some kind of meaningful outcome from what is otherwise a meaningless, horrific tragedy, it’s that we learn from this to stop it from happening again the next time,” he said.
“And part of the learning is about the OpenAI and AI thresholds around reporting. Part of it is about guns. Part of it is about mental health services and responses, and we need to get those answers as quickly as possible.”
On Tuesday, B.C.’s chief coroner announced there would be an inquest into what happened on Feb. 10, but the date and location for that inquest have not been released.
–with files from Sean Boynton
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