Man Charged With Attempted Murder in Attack on Altman's Home

The man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's home in San Francisco has been charged with attempting to kill Altman and a security guard at the residence, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Monday. Daniel Moreno-Gama, who also faces multiple federal charges, faces two counts of attempted murder and attempted arson in California state court, the Washington Post reports.

• Authorities allege the 20-year-old threw the incendiary device about 4am 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. Moreno-Gama was opposed to artificial intelligence, writing about AI's purported risk to humanity and "our impending extinction," according to court documents.

"This was not spontaneous. This was planned, targeted and extremely serious," said FBI San Francisco Acting Special Agent in Charge Matt Cobo during a press conference. 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 by federal prosecutors with possession of an unregistered firearm and damage and destruction of property by means of explosives. The criminal complaint does not name Altman or OpenAI but both have confirmed they were the targets of the attack. No injuries were reported.

• 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. The document discussed AI's purported risk to humanity and "our impending extinction," according to the criminal complaint. Authorities allege Moreno-Gama traveled from his home in Texas to San Francisco and visited Altman's home early Friday morning.

• "We are only at the beginning of this investigation, but 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 and together with our law enforcement partners prosecute him to the fullest extent allowed by law," US Attorney Craig Missakian said in a statement, per Reuters.
• The document in which Moreno-Gama discussed his opposition to AI also made threats against Altman, officials said. "Also if I am going to advocate for others to kill and commit crimes, then I must lead by example and show that I am fully sincere in my message," Moreno-Gama is alleged by authorities to have written in the document.
• Advocacy groups that have issued grave warnings about AI's risks to society condemned the violence. PauseAI said in a statement that the suspect had no role in the group but joined its forum on the social media platform Discord about two years ago and posted about 34 messages there, none containing explicit calls to violence but one that was flagged as "ambiguous." Discord said Monday that it has banned Moreno-Gama for "off-platform behavior."