On both April 10 and April 12, Sam Altman, the creator of OpenAI, was the target of two attacks near his home in retaliation for the rise of Artificial Intelligence.
According to an April CNN article titled, “The attack on Sam Altman exposed a dark underbelly of the anti-AI movement”, 20-year-old Daniel Moreno-Gama was accused of attacking the home of Sam Altman. The camera footage appeared to show the 20-year-old attempting to break into Altman’s home with a chair. Law enforcement officers who responded to the scene claim that this was “part of a plot to harm AI executives.” Altman was later the target of another attack, with two suspects firing gunshots near his residence two days after the first. 25-year-old Amanda Tom and 23-year-old Muhamad Tarik Hussein were arrested in connection with the incident.
This attack corresponds with the rising worries and negative feelings about Artificial Intelligence. According to CNN, just days before Altman’s home was attacked, shots were fired into the home of Ron Gibson, an Indiana Councilman responsible for approving the construction of an AI data center in his district. Doug McAdam, a Sociology professor at Stanford University, said to CNN, “(AI) is such a massive, looming issue that people, frankly, don’t understand and are just diffusely afraid of.” He added that it is not surprising these changes “produce a radical flank.”
CNN has reported that Daniel Moreno-Gama is a part of multiple online anti-AI discussion groups, titled “PauseAI” and “Stop AI”. Pause AI is an organization attempting to advocate for halting more advancements of Artificial Intelligence to allow safety protocols to catch up first. It can be concluded that these attacks on Altman come from a place of anger and fear as AI keeps readily advancing faster than humans were prepared for. Moreno-Gama is currently being held without bail.
