Sam Altman apologises for failing to report Canada shooting, triggering legal, safety and finance scrutiny of OpenAI

Sam Altman apologized after OpenAI failed to alert police about a banned ChatGPT user later accused in the Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, mass shooting. (latimes.com) (cbsnews.com) Altman said OpenAI had suspended the account before the attack but did not contact law enforcement. British Columbia officials said the January shooting killed eight people in the small community. (latimes.com) (thehill.com) The apology landed as a separate courtroom fight opened in Oakland, where a nine-person jury was seated Monday in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman. Opening arguments were scheduled for Tuesday, April 28. (cnbc.com) (reuters.com) Musk alleges OpenAI abandoned its founding nonprofit mission by building a profit-driven company around ChatGPT. OpenAI has argued Musk’s claims misstate the company’s structure and history. (reuters.com) (usnews.com) At the same time, Reuters reported that OpenAI had fallen short of internal targets for new users and revenue in recent months. The Wall Street Journal, cited by Reuters, said some executives questioned whether those trends could support heavy data-center spending. (reuters.com) (fortune.com) Fortune reported that Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar clashed with Altman over missed revenue goals and the pace of commitments tied to computing infrastructure. The report said the tensions surfaced as artificial-intelligence capital spending kept rising across the sector. (fortune.com) (reuters.com) Those three tracks now sit on the same company at once: platform safety after a real-world attack, governance in a founder lawsuit, and finances under pressure from growth targets and infrastructure costs. (latimes.com) (reuters.com 1) (reuters.com 2) OpenAI said after the Canada case that it was reviewing its escalation processes. In court, the company is defending the way it evolved after Musk left, while investors and partners are watching whether growth can keep pace with spending. (cbsnews.com) (reuters.com 1) (reuters.com 2) For OpenAI, the immediate calendar is now split between courtroom testimony, safety fixes and proving that ChatGPT’s business can fund the computing buildout behind it. (cnbc.com) (fortune.com)