The company's employees tried to alert the police months earlier about the shooter in the massacre in Canada, but the company denied it
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OpenAI evaluated last year the possibility of alerting the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) about the online activity of the young man who months later carried out one of the deadliest school shootings in the country's recent history, but concluded that there was no "imminent and credible" risk that would justify a formal notification to the authorities.
The revelation places the technology company's internal safety and privacy protocols under scrutiny. According to the company based in San Francisco, in June 2025 its abuse detection system identified the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar for possible "facilitation of violent activities." After an internal review in which several employees participated, the company assessed whether the case should be referred to the Canadian police.
OpenAI indicated that its threshold for contacting law enforcement requires the existence of a specific, credible, and imminent threat of serious physical harm against other people.
Jesse Van Rootselaar, el transexual identificado como el autor material de la masacre de Tumbler Ridge
At that time, the company stated, no specific plans or clear indications were detected that the user was about to commit an attack. Nevertheless, the account was suspended that same month for violating the platform's terms of use.
Months later, the 18-year-old carried out an armed attack in the town of Tumbler Ridge, in the province of British Columbia, which left eight fatalities before the striker himself died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
According to the RCMP, the striker first murdered his mother and his stepbrother in the family home and then went to the nearby school, where a 39-year-old teaching assistant and five students between 12 and 13 years old died.
The authorities confirmed that the suspect had a history of contacts with the police related to his mental health. The motive for the attack remains under investigation. The small municipality, with about 2,700 inhabitants and located more than 1,000 kilometers (about 621 miles) northeast of Vancouver, remains shocked by what happened.
Ocho personas fueron asesinadas por Van Rootselaar en el mortal ataque
After learning the magnitude of the tragedy, OpenAI stated that it proactively contacted the RCMP to share information about the way the striker had used ChatGPT and to cooperate with the ongoing investigation. "Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the Tumbler Ridge tragedy," a company spokesperson stated.
The case has reopened the debate about the responsibility of technology platforms in preventing violence and the delicate balance between privacy and public safety. OpenAI explained that, in its initial analysis, it weighed privacy considerations against the potential risk of harm.
The company faces criticism for the apparent contradiction between that caution and a recent court decision in the United States that forced it to hand over millions of conversation records to plaintiffs in a copyright lawsuit, after a federal judge determined that users do not have an absolute expectation of privacy over the information they voluntarily share.
La compañía de inteligencia artificial aseguró que se puso en contacto con la policía de Canadá tras el ataque por el comportamiento del perturbado joven en ChatGPT
In addition, it became known that the young man had developed a game on the Roblox platform that simulated a shooting in a shopping mall and that he claimed to have manufactured bullet cartridges using 3D printing.
The massacre constitutes the deadliest attack in Canada since the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia, where an striker killed 13 people and started fires that left nine other victims.
