They throw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman’s house: who is the suspect and everything we know about the attack

According to local police, a 20 year old young man identified as Daniel Alejandro Moreno-Gama was arrested after throwing an incendiary device at the home of the creator of ChatGPTlocated in the neighborhood of Russian Hill.

The incident occurred shortly before 4 in the morning. Security personnel managed to turn off the flames on an outside fence before the fire spread and no injuries were reported.

According to authorities, the suspect fled the scene but was stopped about an hour later in the vicinity of the OpenAI headquarters, in Mission Baywhere he would have threatened to set the building on fire.

He was charged on suspicion of attempted murdercriminal threats and possession or manufacture of a destructive device, although prosecutors have not yet filed formal charges.

The episode was not isolated. Two days later, early Sunday morning, police responded to a alleged shooting near Altman residence. The investigation determined that a vehicle had passed through the area at that time and that one of its occupants fired a shot. It was not confirmed if the target was the businessman’s house.

A 25-year-old woman, identified as Amanda Tomand a 23-year-old man, Muhamad Tarik Hussein. Both were arrested a few blocks away and three weapons were seized after a raid. They were taken into custody accused of negligent use of firearm.

“The San Francisco Police Department takes gun crimes extremely seriously and anyone who commits acts like these will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said the police chief. Derrick Lew in a statement.

It is not clear if Altman was at his residence at the time of the Molotov cocktail attack. OpenAI said it is assisting with the investigation.

While the investigation remains open and without a confirmed motive, elements began to emerge regarding the profile of the main suspect in the arson attack. Online records show that Moreno-Gama had written extensively about his concerns around the artificial intelligencewhich he described as an “existential risk” for humanity.

In posts on Substack and in online forums, the young man argued that the advancement of AI could lead to human extinction and questioned technology leaders.

“These machines have already proven not to be aligned with the interests of the people who create them,” he wrote in one of his texts. He also warned that some leaders in the sector “they seem to lack strong moral values”.

In another passage, he pointed out that “we cannot coexist with this species at this time” in reference to advanced artificial intelligence systems, and raised the need to stop its development “as quickly as possible”. He also participated in online communities linked to activism against AI, although from those spaces they clarified that he did not have an active role nor did they promote violent actions.

Altman himself referred to the attack hours later in a post on his personal blog. In an unusual entry, the magnate confirmed the incident, in a message accompanied by a photo of her husband and one-year-old baby with the intention that this image would “dissuade the next person” from committing a similar act.

There he confirmed the episode and indicated that the device hit the home without causing major damage. “Normally we try to be pretty private, but in this case I’m sharing a photo in the hopes that it might deter the next person from throwing a Molotov cocktail at our house,” he wrote, alongside a picture of his family.

The CEO of OpenAI also linked what happened to the climate of public debate about artificial intelligence. “Words also have power”he maintained, adding that a recent article about his figure, which he described as “inflammatory,” could have contributed to a more risky context.

“Now I’m awake in the middle of the night and angry, thinking that I underestimated the power of words and narratives”, he stated.

In this context, he asked to lower the tone of the discussion: “While we have this debate, we should deescalate the rhetoric and methods and try to have fewer explosions in fewer houses, both figuratively and literally.”

Altman recognized that there is a “genuine concern” about the impact of artificial intelligence and considered that this fear “is valid”, at a moment that he described as one of the biggest social changes in a long time. However, he defended technological progress and maintained that it can generate long-term benefits.

To date, the authorities They did not confirm whether the different episodes are directly linked to each other. nor if there was a specific target against Altman. The investigation continues.