AI minister to meet with OpenAI’s Sam Altman on Tumbler Ridge shooting | Globalnews.ca
Canada’s artificial intelligence minister will meet virtually with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Wednesday afternoon to discuss changes the company has committed to making after last month’s mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.
The timing was confirmed to Global News by a spokesperson for AI Minister Evan Solomon’s office.
Solomon sought the meeting with Altman after 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 RCMP to the shooter’s ChatGPT activity after the mass shooting, in which eight people died and dozens more were injured. The shooter took her own life.
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OpenAI acknowledged in its statement last week that, “under our enhanced law enforcement referral protocol, we would refer the account banned in June 2025 to law enforcement if it were discovered today.”
Solomon said in a statement last week that OpenAI’s commitments, while welcome, did not include “a detailed plan for how these commitments will be implemented in practice” and that more clarity was needed.
“I will be meeting directly with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman next week to seek further clarity and to ensure that the commitments made are translated into concrete action,” he wrote.
Altman has yet to comment publicly on the Tumbler Ridge shooting, the commitments his company has made in response, or his meeting with Solomon.
British Columbia Premier David Eby has said he will also meet with Altman, but a date for that meeting has not yet been announced. Global News has reached out to Eby’s office for comment.
OpenAI’s commitments came after company representatives met with Solomon and three other federal ministers in Ottawa to discuss its safety practices.
The ministers left the meeting “disappointed” that OpenAI did not present “concrete actions” it would take in response, while experts and opposition MPs called on the government to step in with regulations.
Solomon has not ruled out legislation to address police referral practices for AI companies that detect violent behaviour on their platforms. The minister has said he will meet with other companies in the coming weeks to discuss the issue.
Eby has called for a national standard for police referrals, calling OpenAI’s improvements and commitments for change “cold comfort for the people in Tumbler Ridge.”
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