OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, shown at a 2023 event, says he is reassessing the impact of public rhetoric around artificial intelligence after his San Francisco home was reportedly the target of an incendiary device Friday morning.
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
The 20-year-old man accused of attempting to burn down OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home Friday appears to have written recently about his worry that the race for artificial intelligence would “lead to human extinction.”
San Francisco police said Daniel Alejandro Moreno-Gama threw a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s home on Russian Hill shortly before 4 a.m. Friday, though security personnel were able to extinguish the fire without injury. Officers arrested him hours later near OpenAI’s Mission Bay headquarters, where they said he was threatening to burn down the building.
Article continues below this ad
Moreno-Gama, of Spring, Texas, was booked on suspicion of attempted murder, arson, making criminal threats, possession or manufacture of a destructive device, and several other felonies, jail records show. Prosecutors have not yet filed formal charges against him, and he remains in custody. Moreno-Gama’s relatives did not respond to a request for comment.
A review of online records show that a person identified as Moreno-Gama wrote widely about concerns over AI on a personal Substack in several essays, including one titled “A Eulogy for Man,” and in the Discord server of PauseAI, an activist group focused on banning the development of the most powerful AI models to protect the public.
The Bay Area is home to extensive subcultures of people, many who have worked in tech, who have spent years debating, often online, whether the advancement of AI could threaten humanity. Leaders and others in these communities have often spoken out against violence as a solution, while warning that pondering existential and nightmarish scenarios can overwhelm and destabilize vulnerable people.
The San Francisco home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was reportedly the target of an incendiary device targeted Friday morning.
Lea Suzuki/S.F. Chronicle
On Substack, Moreno-Gama wrote that he is concerned that the race for artificial intelligence would lead to the extinction of humanity, because AI machines were not aligned with the best interests of mankind. He published six lengthy posts between Jan. 6 and March 1.
Article continues below this ad
San Francisco Chronicle Logo
Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.
Add Preferred Source
“These machines have already shown themselves to be unaligned with the interest of the people creating them,” he wrote in his first Substack post, calling AI an existential risk. “Models have often been found lying, cheating on tasks, and blackmailing their own creators whenever convenient; let alone the broader question of aligning them to whatever general ‘human interest’ may be.”
In the same post, Moreno-Gama warned that tech oligarchs “probably don’t think like you do,” and “Many of them appear to lack strong morals.”
He wrote that Tesla and X leader Elon Musk had warned AI could end humanity and pointed to allegations of unethical behavior by Altman.
“These are the types of people gambling with your future and the lives of your children,” he wrote. “These people are almost nothing like you. They are most likely sociopathic/psychopathic and, in the case of Altman, consistently reported to be a pathological liar.”
Article continues below this ad
A month later, he posted about the rise of AI agents such as the personal assistant OpenClaw and his worry about “the end of human intellectual dominance on the planet.”
“We cannot coexist with this species at this moment,” he said of the AI agents. “We have to stop this initiative as quickly as possible. It is a race to the grave.”
On Discord, Moreno-Gama appears to have written under the screenname “Butlerian Jihadist.” The phrase is a reference to the “Dune” science fiction series by Frank Herbert, in which humanity was nearly destroyed by thinking machines before its inhabitants waged a crusade to destroy computers and artificial intelligence.
Moreno-Gama posted on PauseAI’s server beginning in June 2024. By Saturday morning, his account and messages had been deleted from Discord but were preserved and posted on X by Nirit Weiss-Blatt, a communications researcher and author.
Daniel Moreno-Gama/ dmgama/ Butlerian Jihadist was booked on suspicion of attempted murder.
He is an active PauseAI member, who frequently stated the urgency: “We are close to midnight, it’s time to actually act” pic.twitter.com/caXTD84k1a
— Nirit Weiss-Blatt, PhD (@DrTechlash) April 11, 2026
On June 11, 2024, Moreno-Gama wrote that he was a first-year community college student from Texas.
Article continues below this ad
“I am very passionate about this issue and am willing to learn and help (by) whatever means necessary,” he wrote.
Five days later, he shared an email with the group that he was planning to send to Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, about his AI concerns. In the email, he congratulated Crenshaw on a 2023 interview between the congressman and AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky and wrote that Crenshaw “asked very good questions.”
Yudkowsky continues to warn of the danger of a coming AI singularity, writing in Time magazine, “If we go ahead on this everyone will die.”
Moreno-Gama wrote: “Although this is a great start, I hope that you will only continue to push back against the unchecked power of these corporations and their dangerous profit oriented motivations, which primarily put shareholders and image ahead of caution and safety.”
He went on to write that what concerned him most by the AI revolution is “the idea that this small cartel of individuals has successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of our government and the public as so many have previously done, and (are) currently gambling with our safety through manufactured consent.”
Article continues below this ad
PauseAI’s media representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Saturday, Weiss-Blatt said Moreno-Gama’s apparent radicalization mirrored others in some anti-AI groups, who share worries about the dangers of technology and quickly transition to concerns about human extinction.
“When people are in a state of anxiety, and depressed, worried, and all they hear from the echo chamber is doom, they become more vulnerable, and become more radicalized,” she said, “even if places like PauseAI or StopAI are not advocating for violence.”
Shortly after the attack on his property, Altman published a blog post noting the “sincere concern” about the impacts of AI.
“This is quite valid, and we welcome good-faith criticism and debate. I empathize with anti-technology sentiments and clearly technology isn’t always good for everyone. But overall, I believe technological progress can make the future unbelievably good, for your family and mine,” he wrote. “While we have that debate, we should de-escalate the rhetoric and tactics and try to have fewer explosions in fewer homes, figuratively and literally.”
Moreno-Gama’s concerns appeared to grow more pointed last November, when he shared an article in the PauseAI server in which he wrote “we owe it to everyone who came before us, and to ourselves, and everyone who we know and love, and everyone who might exist someday, to be stronger than that and at least die fighting if it comes to that, like so many people have done in the past for far far lesser causes.”
A month later, in December, he wrote “We are close to midnight, it’s time to actually act.” A moderator responded: “Advocating violence in any form is grounds for a ban.”