Suspect in Tumbler Ridge school shooting described violent scenarios to ChatGPT

The suspect in the mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Jesse Van Rootselaar, was raising alarms among employees at OpenAI months before the shooting took place. This past June, Jesse had conversations with ChatGPT involving descriptions of gun violence that triggered the chatbot’s automated review system. Several employees raised concerns that her posts could be a precursor to real-world violence and encouraged company leaders to contact the authorities, but they ultimately declined.

According to the Wall Street Journal, leaders at the company decided that Rootselaar’s posts did not constitute a “credible and imminent risk of serious physical harm to others.” The company banned Rootselaar’s account, but it does not appear to have taken any further action. We’ve reached out to OpenAI to ask who specifically made that decision, and how it was made, and will update if we hear back.

The decision not to alert law enforcement looks misguided in retrospect, as, on February 10th, nine people were killed and 27 injured, including Rootselaar, in the deadliest mass shooting in Canada since 2020. Rootselaar was found dead at the scene of the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, where most of the killings took place.