The head of OpenAI says he is deeply sorry that his company didn’t alert law enforcement to worrisome online behaviour of the person in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., before she shot and killed eight people earlier this year.

Sam Altman says in a letter shared on B.C. Premier David Eby’s social media that while he knows words can never be enough, he believes “an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreplaceable loss the community has suffered.”

He says the pain that the community has endured is unimaginable and he has been thinking about those in Tumbler Ridge often. 

OpenAI came forward after the shooting on Feb. 10 to say that 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar’s worrisome behaviour using its ChatGPT chatbot was flagged by staff at the company, but it didn’t go to police with those concerns.