Sam Altman hints 'AI anxiety' behind attack on his home

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Saturday that a suspect hurled a Molotov cocktail at his San Francisco residence in the US, supposedly due to anger against tech leaders amid rising public anxiety about artificial intelligence (AI).

Altman posted on his personal blog a photograph of his private life and his child, following a dual-pronged attack targeting both the residence and the office of Altman. “The first person did it last night, at 3:45 am. Thankfully it bounced off the house and no one got hurt,” the CEO wrote.

He described his family as “shaken” by the incident. “I wrote this early this morning and I wasn't sure if I would actually publish it, but here it is. Here is a photo of my family. I love them more than anything,” he said in the post.

The blog post reads, “Images have power, I hope. Normally we try to be pretty private, but in this case I am sharing a photo in the hopes that it might dissuade the next person from throwing a Molotov cocktail at our house, no matter what they think about me."

The San Francisco Police Department confirmed the arrest of a 20‑year‑old man in connection with the attack. The suspect reportedly fled from outside Altman's home on foot immediately after hurling a Molotov cocktail. Police said the suspect later went to OpenAI’s San Francisco office and threatened to torch its premises.

Altman suspected the attack was related to rising 'AI anxiety'. “Words have power too. There was an incendiary article about me a few days ago. Someone said to me yesterday they thought it was coming at a time of great anxiety about AI and that it made things more dangerous for me. I brushed it aside," he wrote.

He called for a societal response and policy measures to help navigate through a difficult economic transition tied to technological change, to get to a much better future.

"The only solution I can come up with is to orient towards sharing the technology with people broadly, and for no one to have the ring. The two obvious ways to do this are individual empowerment and making sure democratic system stays in control," he said in the blog post.