A 20-year-old Texas man has been charged with throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's San Francisco residence in one of two separate attacks at his house over two days.
The suspect, Daniel Moreno-Gama, was caught on video surveillance throwing the flame outside Altman's home. The Molotov cocktail allegedly sparked a fire on an exterior gate, but no one was injured.
Moreno-Gama was later arrested outside OpenAI's headquarters, where he was reportedly threatening to burn down the building. He was charged with attempted murder and arson.
In a separate incident the day before, two individuals were arrested for firing shots at Altman's house. In that situation, a Honda was caught on camera outside Altman’s $27 million Russian Hill mansion – before a shot was fired from the vehicle’s passenger window, the San Francisco Standard reported.
The license plate was caught on camera and that led police to suspects Amanda Tom, 25, and Muhamad Tarik Hussein, 23, who were still on the property when they were arrested. Three guns were seized from the vehicle.
Why is this happening? Moreno-Gama had posted a string of Substack essays about fears AI would lead to the extinction of humanity, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Altman responded to the incidents with a Substack essay of his own, about his family. The goal was to humanize them because "images have power," Altman wrote.
He added, "Someone said to me yesterday they thought it was coming at a time of great anxiety about AI and that it made things more dangerous for me. I brushed it aside. Now I am awake in the middle of the night and pissed, and thinking that I have underestimated the power of words and narratives. This seems like as good of a time as any to address a few things.
"First, what I believe...
Working towards prosperity for everyone, empowering all people, and advancing science and technology are moral obligations for me. AI will be the most powerful tool for expanding human capability and potential that anyone has ever seen. Demand for this tool will be essentially uncapped, and people will do incredible things with it. The world deserves huge amounts of AI and we must figure out how to make it happen."
