Employees at OpenAI expressed worries months in advance about online posts from the transgender shooter responsible for the tragic school attack in Canada, newly revealed information shows.
Authorities reported that 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar opened fire inside the library at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia on February 10. This horrific act resulted in the deaths of a female teacher, along with three girls and two boys aged 13 to 17, while 25 others sustained injuries. Prior to the school attack, Van Rootselaar’s mother and brother were discovered deceased at their residence.
Signs of potential violence had surfaced as early as the previous summer. It is alleged that Van Rootselaar engaged in describing violent scenarios involving guns to ChatGPT over several days in June, as reported by sources to the Wall Street Journal.
These alarming posts were detected by an automated review system, raising red flags for about a dozen OpenAI employees who feared the potential for these threats to materialize into real-world violence.
Insiders indicated that several employees reported the disturbing content to their superiors, advocating for notifying Canadian authorities, as detailed by the news outlet.
According to those familiar with the matter, several employees escalated the troubling content to leaders and urged them to alert Canadian law enforcement, the outlet reported.
However, OpenAI decided against reporting Van Rootselaar to law enforcement.
A spokesperson for the AI company told the Journal that they banned her account, but decided her comments didn’t meet the requirements for further escalation.
Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, opened fire in the library at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia on February 10, killing one teacher and five students
In June, Van Rootselaar was allegedly telling ChatGPT a series of graphic scenarios involving gun violence over a number of days, concerning multiple Open AI employees
Children were led out of the school after the shooting as authorities attended the scene
The company said in a statement to the outlet: ‘Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the Tumbler Ridge tragedy.’
According to the Journal, OpenAI claimed to train their software to discourage users from committing acts of real-world violence, and any indication of such behavior is directed to be reviewed by humans.
The escalation to law enforcement is weighed against the risk of privacy concerns and the potential distress for the user and their family should police become unnecessarily involved.
Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX which recently integrated with xAI, wrote on X that he found the news of OpenAI’s lack of action ‘troubling.’
The RCMP explained that Van Rootselaar began identifying as female six years ago, aged 12, and said there had been multiple call-outs to her home related to her mental health over the years.
Archived posts on social media were uncovered of Van Rootselaar posing at the gun range and claiming to have created a bullet cartridge using a 3D printer.
Van Rootselaar, who stopped attending school four years ago at the age of 14, even had to be ‘apprehended for assessment’ under the country’s mental health act at one point.
‘Police have attended that residence in the past, approximately a couple of years ago, where firearms were seized under the Criminal Code,’ said Dwayne McDonald, Deputy Commissioner of British Columbia RCMP.
The 18-year-old murdered her mother and brother before killing eight people in the second-deadliest school shooting in Canadian history
‘I can say that at a later point in time, the lawful owner of those firearms petitioned for those firearms to be returned, and they were.’
Sources told the Daily Mail that Van Rootselaar lived at the home with three relatives.
Liam Irving said Van Rootselaar’s mother and younger brother were well known in the Tumbler Ridge community and were ‘good friends’ of his family.
‘There’s not one person in this town right now that’s not affected by this,’ he told the Western Standard.
An emergency alert was issued to Tumbler Ridge residents around 1.20pm local time on the afternoon of February 10, warning of an active shooter in the area.
An urgent lockdown alarm sounded in the hallways shortly after 1.30pm, instructing students and staff to barricade the doors.
‘Once people sent me some photos, it definitely set in what was actually happening,’ the student said.
‘They [the photos] were disturbing, just showing blood and things like that. That’s when it all really set in.’
Van Rootselaar seen pictured happily gripping a rifle
The secondary school, which enrolls 175 students, and its elementary school, was closed for the rest of the week.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a social media post that he was devastated by the shooting.
‘I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today, and in gratitude for the courage and selflessness of the first responders who risked their lives to protect their fellow citizens,’ he wrote.
Carney’s office said he has suspended a planned trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia and Munich, Germany.
He was set to announce a long-awaited defense industrial strategy in Halifax on Wednesday before heading to Europe for the Munich Security Conference.
David Eby, the province’s premier, told reporters he had spoken to Carney after what he called the ‘unimaginable tragedy’.
‘I know it’s causing us all to hug our kids a little bit tighter tonight,’ he said. ‘I’m asking the people of British Columbia to look after the people of Tumbler Ridge tonight.’
