Man who attacked Sam Altman's home intended to kill OpenAI director, prosecutors say
These allegations emerged as prosecutors filed federal charges against Daniel Moreno-Gama, 20, for the attack that occurred last Friday in San Francisco.
Sam Altman, executive director of OpenAI, during a conference. File image.
Prosecutors said a man who allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's luxury California home was attempting to assassinate the CEO of the artificial intelligence giant OpenAI and was in possession of an anti-AI document.
These allegations emerged as prosecutors filed federal charges against Daniel Moreno-Gama, 20, for last Friday's attack in San Francisco.
The Justice Department claimed Moreno-Gama had traveled from his home in Texas to carry out the attack on Altman, whose company is behind the popular ChatGPT chatbot.
"Violence cannot be the norm for expressing disagreement, be it with politics or a technology or any other matter (...) These alleged actions – which damaged property and could well have taken lives – will be aggressively prosecuted," said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
According to the prosecution, after throwing an incendiary bomb at Altman's front door, Moreno-Gama fled on foot to OpenAI's San Francisco headquarters, where he attempted to smash the building's glass doors with a chair.
According to the federal criminal complaint, he "stated that he had come to burn down the location and kill anyone inside."
According to the complaint, when police arrived, they found Moreno-Gama with a carafe of kerosene, a lighter and a document titled "His Last Warning" that "advocated against AI and in favor of murder and the commission of other crimes against CEOs of AI companies and their investors."
The document, divided into three parts, was allegedly drafted by Moreno-Gama and listed "names and addresses allegedly belonging to various CEOs and investors."
"A sign from the divine to redeem yourself"
According to prosecutors, the author concluded the document, in which he admitted he intended to kill Altman, with the phrase: "If by some miracle you live, then I would take this as a sign from the divine to redeem yourself."
Moreno-Gama faces one count of damage and destruction of property by explosives, and one count of possession of an unregistered firearm.
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