Prosecutors said Monday that a man accused of throwing a lit Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home last week was attempting to kill him to prevent the “impending extinction” of humanity at the hands of AI.
CNBC reports that the suspect, identified as Daniel Moreno-Gama, is facing attempted murder charges in connection with the attack, according to an announcement from the San Francisco District Attorney. He is also subject to federal charges that include attempted damage and destruction of property by means of explosives and possession of an unregistered firearm, the Department of Justice said in a release.
FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Matt Cobo said in a statement, “The charges announced today reflect a deeply concerning escalation from intent to action targeting a private residence and a technology company with violence.” At a press conference on Monday, Cobo added, “This was not spontaneous. This was planned, targeted and extremely serious.”
Following Moreno-Gama’s arrest after the Friday attack, San Francisco Police Department officers found a document on him that outlined his intentions, according to a complaint filed in San Francisco federal court. In the document, Moreno-Gama stated his goal to kill Altman and warned of humanity’s “impending extinction” caused by AI.
According to police, the document’s first section, titled “Your Last Warning,” included Moreno-Gama’s statement that he “killed /attempted to kill” Sam Altman, the complaint said. It also contained the names and addresses of multiple other AI executives, board members and investors. A second section, titled “some more words on the matter of our impending extinction,” discussed what Moreno-Gama described as risks AI poses to humanity. He ended the document with a letter directly to Altman, writing that, “if by some miracle you live, then I would take this as a sign from the divine to redeem yourself.”
According to the complaint, Moreno-Gama threw “a lit Molotov cocktail-style incendiary device at” Altman’s home at approximately 3:37 a.m. on Friday. The device started a fire at the top of the driveway gate, but no one was injured, and the suspect fled the scene.
Roughly an hour and a half later, at about 5:00 a.m., Moreno-Gama arrived at OpenAI’s headquarters, threw a chair against the glass doors and threatened “to burn it down and kill anyone inside,” the filing stated. Officers responded and arrested him at the scene.
An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the attack in a statement on Friday, saying, “Thankfully, no one was hurt.” The company also said, “We deeply appreciate how quickly SFPD responded and the support from the city in helping keep our employees safe. The individual is in custody, and we’re assisting law enforcement with their investigation.”
On his personal blog on Friday, Altman addressed the attack and posted a photo of his family. He wrote that he “underestimated the power of words and narratives,” describing the past few years as “extremely intense, chaotic, and high-pressure.” He urged those in the AI industry to reduce the intensity of “the rhetoric and tactics.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said Monday that the agency and its partners carried out an operation in Texas related to the attack on Altman’s home.
Altman’s home appeared to be targeted in a second attack on Sunday involving gunfire, and two individuals were arrested in connection with that incident.
Author Wynton Hall argues in his instant bestseller, Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, that AI isn’t just a tool, it is political power:
The conservative response, Hall argues, cannot be indifference. “Some dismiss AI as overhyped Silicon Valley PR,” he writes. “Others reduce it to a mere tool, a glorified spellchecker or a turbocharged Google search. A few shrug it off as sci-fi silliness or a ‘shiny object’ they’re too busy to learn or worry about. I respectfully, yet vehemently, disagree.” Hall contends that AI’s architects “are building systems capable of muzzling dissent, manipulating narratives, disrupting economies, displacing jobs, evangelizing leftist ideologies, unleashing new national security threats, warping human relationships, cementing educational indoctrination, maximizing surveillance capitalism, and controlling media and information on an unprecedented scale.”
Read more at CNBC here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.
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