Man accused of OpenAI CEO attack charged with attempted murder : NPR
FBI San Francisco Acting Special Agent Matt Cobo (right) speaks next to San Francisco Police Chief Derrick Lew (second from right) and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins (third from right) during a news conference Monday, April 13, 2026, in San Francisco.
Jeff Chiu/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Jeff Chiu/AP
SAN FRANCISCO — The man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had written about AI’s alleged risk to humanity and traveled from Texas to San Francisco intending to kill Altman, authorities said Monday.
Authorities say Daniel Moreno-Gama, 20, threw the incendiary device around 4 a.m. Friday, setting fire to an exterior gate of Altman’s home before fleeing on foot, police said. Less than an hour later, Moreno-Gama allegedly went to OpenAI headquarters, about 3 miles (4.83 kilometers) away, and threatened to burn the building down.
Moreno-Gama opposes artificial intelligence, writing about AI’s alleged risk to humanity and “our impending extinction,” according to a federal criminal complaint.
“This was not spontaneous. It was planned, targeted and extremely serious,” FBI Acting Special Agent in San Francisco Matt Cobo said at a news conference.
No one was injured at Altman’s home or the company’s offices, authorities said.
Moreno-Gama faces state and federal charges
Moreno-Gama faces charges, including two counts of attempted murder and attempted arson, in California state court, according to San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. He attempted to kill Altman and a security guard at Altman’s residence, she claimed. He is due in court Tuesday, and state online court records do not yet indicate whether he has an attorney.
Jenkins said the state charges carry penalties ranging from 19 years to life in prison.
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 was charged by federal prosecutors with possession of an unregistered firearm and damage and destruction of property by means of explosives. These charges carry respective penalties of up to 10 years and 20 years in prison.
Federal court documents do not list an attorney for Moreno-Gama, and he has not yet made his first appearance in federal court.
Authorities say Moreno-Gama traveled from his home in Texas to San Francisco and visited Altman’s home early Friday morning.
Authorities say Moreno-Gama was opposed to artificial intelligence
When Moreno-Gama was arrested Friday, authorities found a document on him in which he “identified views opposing artificial intelligence (AI) and executives of various AI companies,” according to court documents. The document discussed AI’s alleged risk to humanity and “our impending extinction,” according to the criminal complaint.
Surveillance video footage included in the criminal complaint shows a person dressed in a dark hoodie and pants who the FBI believes is Moreno-Gama approaching the driveway of Altman’s home. In various images, the person can be seen throwing the Molotov cocktail, which landed on top of a metal gate and started a small fire.
Surveillance video footage from outside OpenAI headquarters reportedly shows Moreno-Gama grabbing a chair and using it to punch a glass door. Authorities said Moreno-Gama was approached by building security personnel, who told investigators he “stated in substance” that he came to the headquarters “to burn it down and kill anyone inside,” according to the complaint.
San Francisco police arrested Moreno-Gama and recovered “incendiary devices, a jug of kerosene, a blue lighter and a document.” Moreno-Gama was being held in the San Francisco County Jail on state charges Monday and was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.
U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian said authorities “will treat this as an act of domestic terrorism and, with our partners, will pursue it to the fullest extent of the law.”
Authorities say Moreno-Gama’s anti-AI document contained threats against Altman
The document in which Moreno-Gama discusses his opposition to AI also contains threats against Altman, officials said.
“Moreover, if I want to incite others to kill and commit crimes, then I must lead by example and show that I am fully sincere in my message,” Moreno-Gama reportedly wrote in the document.
Advocacy groups that have issued dire warnings about the risks AI poses to society have condemned the violence.
Anthony Aguirre, president and CEO of the Future of Life Institute, said in a written statement Friday that “violence and intimidation of any kind have no place in the conversation about the future of AI.”
Another group, PauseAI, said in a statement that the suspect played 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 for violence but one that was flagged as “ambiguous.”
Discord said Monday that it had banned Moreno-Gama for “off-platform behavior.”
Altman addressed the threats in a blog post
Hours after her home was attacked, Altman posted a photo of her husband and their child in a blog post addressing the threats against him.
“Normally we try to be pretty private, but in this case I’m sharing a photo in hopes that it might dissuade the next person from throwing a Molotov cocktail at our house, no matter what they think of me,” Altman wrote.
He added that “fear and anxiety about AI is justified” but that it was important to “defuse the rhetoric and tactics and try to have fewer explosions in fewer homes, figuratively and literally.”
Altman has become a preeminent voice in Silicon Valley on the promise and potential dangers of artificial intelligence. The attack comes days after The New Yorker published an in-depth investigation that addressed some people’s concerns about him and the company.
The debate over the impact of AI intensifies
The attack came at a time of intensifying debate over the societal effects of AI assistants like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which millions of people turn to for information, advice, writing help and to work on their behalf.
An annual report released Monday by Stanford University, called AI index, finds that most people believe the benefits of AI outweigh its drawbacks, “but nervousness is growing and trust in institutions to manage the technology remains uneven.”
