In the early hours of 10 April, a man approached the San Francisco home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and hurled a molotov cocktail at the building before fleeing. The suspect, 20-year-old Daniel Moreno-Gama, was arrested less than two hours later while allegedly attempting to break into OpenAI's headquarters with a jug of kerosene, a lighter and an anti-AI manifesto.
Federal and California state authorities have charged Moreno-Gama with attempted arson and attempted murder. His parents said he had recently suffered a mental health crisis. Moreno-Gama, who has not entered a plea, faces up to life in prison if convicted. The attack is the most prominent so far against a person or business linked to AI, amid growing public discontent over the technology.
Altman addressed the incident in a blogpost, calling for de-escalation of the AI debate and sharing a photo of his family. 'Images have power, I hope. Normally we try to be pretty private, but in this case I am sharing a photo in the hopes that it might dissuade the next person from throwing a Molotov cocktail at our house,' he wrote. The firebomb bounced off the building and no one was harmed.
Two days after the attack, San Francisco police arrested two people after shots were fired from a car outside Altman's home, but they were released without charge. Surveillance images showed the alleged assailant walking up the driveway with a flaming molotov cocktail. Moreno-Gama then travelled to OpenAI's headquarters, where he attempted to smash doors with a chair and told security he planned to burn the building down.
Federal authorities described the attack as an escalation of violence against big tech. US attorney Craig Missakian said: 'If the evidence shows that Mr Moreno-Gama executed these attacks to change public policy or to coerce government and other officials, we will treat this as an act of domestic terrorism.' However, there is no specific federal domestic terrorism statute, and California lacks a state-level equivalent.
