OpenAI employees raised alarm about mass shooting suspect months ago: report

OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said Friday it considered alerting Canadian police in 2025 about the online activities of the suspect in one of the worst school shootings in the country’s history.

The San Francisco tech company said it identified the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar in June via abuse detection efforts for “furtherance of violent activities.”

It considered whether to refer the teenager’s account to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but ruled that it did not meet the threshold for referal to law enforcement.

Instead, it banned the account for violating its usage policy.

Van Rootselaar, 18, is suspected of killing eight people in a remote part of British Columbia last week, before killing herself.

OpenAI said the threshold for referring a user to law enforcement is whether the case involves an imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm to others. The company said it did not identify credible or imminent planning.

OpenAI’s revelation was originally reported by The Wall Street Journal.

OpenAI said that, after learning of the school shooting, employees reached out to the RCMP with information on the suspect and her use of ChatGPT.

“Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the Tumbler Ridge tragedy. We proactively reached out to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with information on the individual and their use of ChatGPT, and we’ll continue to support their investigation,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.

The RCMP said Van Rootselaar first killed her mother and stepbrother at the family home before attacking the nearby school. Van Rootselaar had a history of mental health contacts with police.

The motive for the shooting remains unclear.

The town of 2,700 people in the Canadian Rockies is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta. Police said the victims included a 39-year-old teaching assistant and five students, ages 12 to 13.

The attack was Canada’s deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.