Altman apologizes after OpenAI failed to alert police before fatal Canada shooting

The head of OpenAI has written a letter apologizing that his company didn’t alert law enforcement about the online behavior of a person who shot and killed eight people in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. In the letter posted on Friday, Sam Altman expressed his deepest condolences to the entire community. “I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June,” Altman said. “While I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss your community has suffered.” The letter, dated Thursday, appeared on British Columbia premier David Eby’s social media and also on the local news website Tumbler RidgeLines on Friday. On 10 February, police say an 18-year-old alleged shooter, identified as Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed her 39-year-old mother, Jennifer Jacobs, and 11-year-old stepbrother, Emmett Jacobs, in their northern British Columbia home before heading to the nearby Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and opening fire, killing five children and an educator before killing herself. Twenty-five people were also injured in the attack. After the incident, OpenAI came forward to say that last June the company identified Van Rootselaar’s account using abuse-detection efforts for “furtherance of violent activities”. …