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In February, an 18-year-old named Jesse Van Rootselaar killed eight people and herself — while wounding dozens more — in a rampage that started at her home and continued at a high school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia.
Investigators later learned that Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT account had been flagged and banned by OpenAI’s staff for describing “scenarios involving gun violence” — many months before the massacre took place.
Yet OpenAI failed to notify law enforcement, raising thorny ethical questions regarding the pervasive role the tech plays in modern society and how it’s facilitating plenty of highly troubling behavior, from stalking to violence and murder.
Now, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has issued a grim apology, admitting that the firm has fallen short of its responsibility.
“I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June,” he wrote in an open letter, dated April 23, and addressed to the Tumbler Ridge community. “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.”
“I want to express my deepest condolences to the entire community,” he wrote. “No one should ever have to endure a tragedy like this. I cannot imagine anything worse in this world than losing a child.”
BC premier David Eby was left unimpressed by Altman’s mea culpa.
“The apology is necessary, and yet grossly insufficient for the devastation done to the families of Tumbler Ridge,” he replied in a tweet.
In the aftermath of the event, OpenAI vowed to make changes.
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