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Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon has called representatives of OpenAI to Ottawa to discuss safety concerns after learning the killer in the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., was banned from using the company’s ChatGPT platform months before the murders.
The company banned Jesse Van Rootselaar’s account in June but said the activities on the account didn’t meet the threshold for informing law enforcement at the time because it didn’t identify credible or imminent planning.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Van Rootselaar’s account was banned after it was flagged for troubling posts, including some that included scenarios of gun violence.
OpenAI said it contacted the RCMP after the shooting on Feb. 10 when Van Rootselaar killed her mother and half-brother before going to the local secondary school to kill five students, an educational assistant and then herself.
Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said OpenAI’s senior safety team is coming to Ottawa on Tuesday to discuss its safety protocols after the tech company confirmed the account of the teenager behind the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., mass shooting had been flagged internally but not reported to police.
Solomon told reporters Monday that he is deeply disturbed by the reports and he contacted the American company over the weekend to get more information and to arrange a meeting with its “senior safety team” on Tuesday.
“We will have a sit-down meeting to have an explanation of their safety protocols and their thresholds of escalation to police so we have a better understanding of what’s happening and what they do,” he said.
Solomon would not say whether the federal government intends to regulate AI chatbots like ChatGPT but added that all options are on the table.
A spokesperson for the company confirmed that representatives will be going to Ottawa to meet with Canadian officials.
“Senior leaders from our team are travelling to Ottawa to meet in person with government officials to discuss our overall approach to safety, safeguards we have in place and how we continuously work to strengthen them,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Alan Mackworth, a professor emeritus with the University of British Columbia’s department of computer science who focuses on AI safety and ethics, said in a statement that many professionals, such as teachers and doctors, have a “duty to report” any suspected case of harm to or abuse of a minor.
“These obligations are enshrined in law and/or professional ethics. Similar obligations should be placed on social media and AI companies,” he said.
