B.C. premier says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will apologize to Tumbler Ridge, push for stronger regulations

CANADA, March 6 — B.C. Premier David Eby says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has agreed to apologize to the people of Tumbler Ridge, B.C., after it emerged the AI giant didn't report a mass shooter's account to authorities. The company behind ChatGPT is facing waves of criticism after it came out that the account of 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar — who police say killed eight people , including six children, in Tumbler Ridge on Feb. 10 — wasn't reported to police despite posts about gun violence.

Eby has previously said that the mass shooting could've been prevented if OpenAI had flagged Van Rootselaar's account in June 2025, the point at which the company has said it internally banned the account . Despite the ban, OpenAI said her posts didn't meet the threshold to notify law enforcement.

The premier met virtually with Altman on Thursday, along with Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka. Afterwards, Eby told reporters that Altman was prepared to provide an apology to the community.

"Everybody on the call recognized that an apology is nowhere near sufficient, but also that it is completely necessary," Eby said. "And the mayor of Tumbler Ridge is going to work with OpenAI to make sure that any public statements relating to that are done in the way that is appropriate and meaningful, as much as possible, [and] doesn't retraumatize people in the community."

Canadian officials have been scrambling to figure out what OpenAI knew about the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., mass shooter, after a bombshell report released by the Wall Street Journal. It revealed that OpenAI had banned the shooter's ChatGPT account months before the tragedy, but decided not to report the account to authorities at the time.

Eby said that Altman also agreed to work with the B.C. government and present recommendations to the federal government around AI regulation — specifically when it comes to when chatbot companies should notify police.

The premier said that it shouldn't be up to AI companies' internal safety committees to determine when potentially violent posts should be flagged to authorities, and there should be a national threshold and "duty to report" that is enforced.

"The status quo doesn't work, didn't work and and it very much presents the threat that it might fail again. And so change needs to be made quite urgently," Eby said.

Altman met with Eby on Thursday, a day after he met with federal AI Minister Evan Solomon, who has faced pressure to more strictly regulate AI companies in the wake of the mass shooting and Van Rootselaar's interactions with ChatGPT.

Solomon told CBC's Power and Politics that Altman had pledged to include Canadian experts in mental health and law within OpenAI's safety office — where the company assesses threats and whether or not to inform police.

His office said Altman also agreed to provide a full report outlining the new systems OpenAI is developing to identify high-risk offenders and repeat policy violators, and Solomon also asked Altman to have OpenAI report threats directly to the RCMP.

In addition to the account that was banned in June 2025 — but not reported to police — OpenAI revealed last week that Van Rootselaar had another ChatGPT account . An OpenAI vice president said in a letter to media that the second account came to light after Van Rootselaar's name was made public, and the second account was flagged to police.

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," the letter released to media reads.

An OpenAI spokesperson said Altman would work with Eby and Krakowka to find the best way to apologize and express support to the Tumbler Ridge community.

"OpenAI remains committed to working with provincial and local officials to make meaningful changes that help prevent tragedies like this in the future," the spokesperson wrote in a statement.