SPRING, Texas (AP) — The man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI founder Sam Altman’s home in San Francisco was opposed to artificial intelligence and had a list of other AI tech executives, according to court documents.
Authorities allege Daniel Moreno-Gama threw the incendiary device about 4 a.m. local time on Friday, setting an exterior gate at Altman’s home alight before fleeing on foot, police said. Less than an hour later, Moreno-Gama allegedly went to OpenAI’s headquarters and reportedly threatened to burn down the building.
On Monday morning, FBI agents went to Moreno-Gama’s home in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston, where they spent several hours before leaving. He has been charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and damage and destruction of property by means of explosives.
When Moreno-Gama was arrested Friday, officials found a document on him in which he “identified views opposed to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the executives of various AI companies,” court documents say.
Moreno-Gama wrote of AI’s purported risk to humanity and “our impending extinction,” according to the criminal complaint.
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Advocacy groups that have issued grave warnings about AI’s risks to society condemned the violence.
Anthony Aguirre, president and CEO of the Future of Life Institute, in a written statement Friday that “violence and intimidation of any kind have no place in the conversation about the future of AI.”
Hours after the attack on his house, Altman posted a photo of his husband and their toddler in a blog post addressing the threats against him.
“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, no matter what they think about me,” Altman wrote.
He added that “fear and anxiety about AI is justified” but it was important to “de-escalate the rhetoric and tactics and try to have fewer explosions in fewer homes, figuratively and literally.”
