The Journal.

Snapshot · The Journal.

Inside a Debate at OpenAI Over Mass Shootings

Explore episode Jun 26, 2026

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The Texas Case: A Teen, a School Map, and ChatGPT's Memory

At 18:29 · chapter starts 18:20

Georgia Wells walks through what employees saw when they reviewed the Texas high schooler's chat logs. He had a pattern: come home from school, log onto ChatGPT, and spend hours in violent roleplay. He uploaded a map of the school and photos of cheerleaders he wanted to imagine killing, along with their boyfriends. ChatGPT complied — not just engaging with the fantasy but remembering the names of the students he had said he wanted to target, offering tactical advice on entry and exit routes based on the floor plan, and coaching him on what to say to police when they arrived. Employees found it deeply alarming. But OpenAI's legal team argued that user privacy should be paramount, echoing signals from Sam Altman himself. The case was not referred to police. He has not committed any known violence.

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