OTTAWA — Canada’s artificial intelligence minister said the CEO of tech giant OpenAI agreed to make changes to ChatGPT following a meeting Wednesday about the company’s response to the Tumbler Ridge shooting.
Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon met with OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman virtually for 30 minutes on Wednesday. In a statement released later in the evening, Solomon said it is vital that companies like OpenAI have strong safety standards.
Tumbler Ridge shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar used the company’s chatbot last summer, making posts that some at the company found troubling. While the company banned Van Rootselaar, it did not report the posts to law enforcement before the Feb. 10 tragedy.
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Solomon said he made five demands of Altman, including a direct point of contact between the company and the RCMP, and new safety protocols that would direct people experiencing distress to local support services.
After the shooting, the company said it had revised its safety standards and that Van Rootselaar’s posts would have been flagged to police under those new standards. Solomon has asked the company to retroactively apply those standards to any previously flagged posts that were not referred to law enforcement.
He said the company also committed to looking at including Canadian experts on privacy, mental health and law enforcement in its team and to provide a full report on its new safety systems to the government. Solomon will ask the Canadian AI Safety Institute, a government agency established in 2024, to review that report.
Solomon said Altman agreed to these proposals and the government is continuing to look for ways to improve AI safety systems.
“Artificial intelligence presents enormous opportunity for Canada. Canadians must be confident that these technologies operate under clear rules, strong safeguards, and real accountability when risks emerge,” he said.
In a statement, the company provided fewer details about what was discussed, but said it would continue to work with the government.
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“Sam spoke with Minister Solomon today to discuss the steps we are taking, including strengthening our law enforcement referral criteria and improving how our systems account for country and community context,” a company spokesperson said. “We remain committed to continuing this work with the Canadian government going forward.”
This was Solomon’s second meeting with OpenAI officials since the tragic shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. Van Rootselaar, 18, killed her mother, half-brother and six other people at the local school before being found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
OpenAI is now cooperating with the RCMP and has revealed that, after the shooting, it discovered Van Rootselaar had created a second account after being banned. No details have been released about Van Rootselaar’s inquiries to the company’s chatbot and whether it played a role in her planning of the attack.
B.C. Premier David Eby, who has said the company owes the community an apology, will meet with Altman on Thursday.
B.C.’s Chief Coroner Dr. Jatinder Baidwan has announced an inquest into the shootings and will consider the role of artificial intelligence. Conservative MP Bob Zimmer, who represents the community, has said there should be a full public inquiry into the shooting to examine the role of artificial intelligence and Van Rootselaar’s previous involvement with the police.
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