US officials on Monday said that the man who allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman’s luxury California home was trying to kill the boss of artificial intelligence giant OpenAI.
The claims came after the prosecutors had already levied federal charges against Daniel Moreno-Gama, 20, over the attack in San Francisco on Friday.
Moreno-Gama, according to the Department of Justice had travelled from his home in Texas to carry out the attack on Altman. Sam Altman’s company OpenAI is behind the popular ChatGPT chatbot.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that “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.”
According to the prosecutors he fled on foot to the San Francisco headquarters of OpenAI after he threw a firebomb at the gates of Altman’s house. In headquarters he tried to smash the glass doors of a building with a chair.
According to the complaint when police arrived Moreno-Gama was found with a jug of kerosene. He also had a lighter and a document titled “Your Last Warning.” The document advocated against AI and for the killing of AI CEOs and their investors.
Prosecutors say he ended the document, which included an admission he was trying 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.”
Currently, Moreno-Gama faces one charge of destruction and damage of property by means of explosives and another charge of possession of an unregistered firearm.
No injuries were reported in the home or office attacks.
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