AI minister pledges more information from OpenAI CEO after Tumbler Ridge shooting

OTTAWA — Canada’s artificial intelligence minister says he will demand more information about what changes OpenAI is making to its safety protocols on Wednesday, when he meets with the company’s CEO, Sam Altman.

Evan Solomon is meeting with Altman after it was revealed last week that the Tumbler Ridge shooter — who killed eight people earlier this month in one of the deadliest mass shootings in Canadian history — had been flagged internally by OpenAI for “abuse and enforcement” seven months earlier. The RCMP was not notified until after the tragic events in British Columbia.

Speaking at an event in Halifax on Tuesday, Solomon said OpenAI’s response has been insufficient to date and has “lacked detail.”

“I will press for further details,” Solomon said. “I want to know what changes they’re going to make specifically to protect Canadians.”

“My job, our government’s job, is to make sure Canadians are safe,” he also said. “These AI chatbots pose new challenges for us.”

He added all options are on the table, including legislation to regulate Chatbots. OpenAI is the company responsible for the widely used chatbot, ChatGPT.

Solomon also told reporters that “the public expects, like the government, they expect a level of responsible use of technology.”

“They expect trust and they expect responsibility,” he said. “All options are on the table.”

The minister said that he will table legislation soon pertaining to privacy and data, and pointed to the minister of Canadian identity and culture’s work on an online harms bill. Solomon also noted that Bill C-16, which criminalizes the non-consensual sharing of sexual images and deep fakes, has already been tabled.

Altman is also expected to meet with B.C. Premier David Eby after he speaks with the AI minister. Eby previously declined to meet with OpenAI’s senior team and said that he was determined to deliver his message directly to the CEO.

“I believe that the people of Tumbler Ridge, the families, are owed an apology at a minimum from OpenAI,” Eby said on CTV’s Power Play.

Speaking with host Vassy Kapelos, the premier said that he has questions about the company’s decision-making process and that he’s also pushing for the federal government to put into place national safety standards on reporting thresholds.

Eby says that every AI company should face “serious and meaningful consequences if they don’t report to prevent violent incidents from happening.”

The premier expects Tumbler Ridge families to take legal action, but says the mining community will face immense challenges, taking on a tech giant that recently raised more than $100 billion in equity.

“The idea of a bunch of shattered families with no legal background, taking on a massive firm, one of the largest and best capitalized firms in the world, through litigation, and expecting that that would be a playing field that will result in justice for the families, I think, is a bit naive,” said Eby.

“What the families need is the backing of government.”

After being summoned to Ottawa last week, OpenAI senior officials wrote in an open letter to Solomon that they were upgrading their model to better identify potential warning signals of serious violence and allow the company to direct users to local mental health supports when warranted.

In that same letter, Ann O’Leary, OpenAI’s vice-president of global policy acknowledged that while the shooter’s first account was banned, the company had found a second account linked to them in the wake of the shooting.