The letter, dated April 23, is addressed to the community of Tumbler Ridge, a small town in British Columbia, Canada, where the alleged shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rutselaar, killed eight people on February 10 and then killed himself. Van Rutselaar used ChatGPT, and his first account was suspended in June 2025 after it was found to contain content that presented itself as “indicative of potential real-world violence”. She was then banned, but OpenAI did not report her to law enforcement, and she was able to create a second ChatGPT account that was not discovered until after the shooting.
Florida is investigating OpenAI over deadly mass shooting
A few weeks after the shooting, OpenAI announced it would change its security protocols.
British Columbia Premier David Abbey said in March that Sam Altman would apologize and demand better rules, and, as Tumblr ridgelines pointed out, it’s now here a month later.
“When I talked to the mayor [Darryl] Krakówka and Premier AB expressed the anger, sadness and concern being felt at Tumbler Ridge about this tragedy. We agreed that a public apology was necessary, but also needed to take time to respect the community as you expressed grief. “I share this letter with the understanding that everyone grieves in their own way and in their own time,” the letter said.
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Altman further says that he “deeply regrets” that OpenAI did not alert law enforcement when the ChatGPT account was banned in June. “While I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreparable harm caused to your community,” he wrote.
He also said he was committed to finding “ways to prevent tragedies like this in the future.”
“Moving forward, our focus will be on working with all levels of government to ensure this never happens again,” Altman wrote.
Abby posted on X that an apology was “necessary, and yet completely inadequate for the devastation wreaked on the families of Tumbler Ridge.” A few days ago on Wednesday, he had said that the investigation into the firing has reached its final stage.
The apology comes just days after the Florida Attorney General announced an investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT following the mass shooting at Florida State University in April 2025. A recent report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that eight out of 10 popular AI chatbots helped plan violent crimes.
Disclosure: Mashable’s parent company Ziff Davis filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in the training and operation of its AI systems.
Subject
Artificial Intelligence OpenAI
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