Opposition Toward OpenAI Brings Two Violent Attacks on CEO’s Home
Two incidents in four days at Sam Altman’s San Francisco residence highlight AI backlash.
WASHINGTON, April 13, 2026 – Criticism of artificial intelligence has turned violent in San Francisco after two attacks on OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home within the last four days.
At about 2:56 a.m. on Sunday, San Francisco police responded to possible shots fired in Russian Hill, as first reported by The San Francisco Standard. A person in the passenger seat fired a round from the car window, according to a police report. While the car fled, a camera captured the license plate, allowing SFPD to detain 25-year-old San Franciscan Amanda Tom and 23-year-old Muhamad Tarik Hussein. According to a police report, the police seized three firearms from the suspects as they were booked for negligent discharge.
This was the second violent incident on Altman’s house, with the first happening just two days earlier on Friday. A 20-year-old Texas resident Daniel Alejandro Moreno-Gama threw a Molotov cocktail — a bottle containing a flaming rag and a flammable liquid — at the property’s gate just two days earlier. Moreno-Gama, a critic of AI, was arrested later that day and charged for suspicion of attempted murder, arson, possession or manufacture of an incendiary device, and more.
No one was injured in either incident.
After the Molotov cocktail attack, Altman published a blog post in response with a picture of his family “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.”
He shared about his concerns and accomplishments during his work with OpenAI, as well as the controversy surrounding the AI industry.
“The fear and anxiety about AI is justified; we are in the process of witnessing the largest change to society in a long time, and perhaps ever,” Altman wrote in the blog.
A lot of Altman’s sentiments echoed OpenAI’s report released April 6, entitled “Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First.” The report argues that the rise of advanced AI will be extremely transformative, and proposed a new industrial policy to ensure broad prosperity for everyone, strong safeguards through mitigation risks, and democratic control over AI’s future.
“A lot of the criticism of our industry comes from sincere concern about the incredibly high stakes of this technology. 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,” Altman wrote in the blog.
“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.”
In a similar violent incident just last week, about 13 shots were fired at an Indianapolis councilman’s home with a note that read “NO DATA CENTERS” left under his front doormat.
Indianapolis Councilman Ron Gibson, D, backed support for a rezoning measure for a new data center after much resident opposition. His son was also home at the time of the shooting, and later released a statement saying that he understood that “public service can bring strong opinions and disagreement, but violence is never the answer, especially when it puts families at risk.”
The expansion of AI and data centers has brought opposition from communities across the country, including pushback in Ocean City, Md., because of energy use, environment, and quality of life concerns.
Residents of Port Washington, Wis., also voted to limit local officials’ ability to grant tax incentives for large development projects, which was triggered by a proposed $15 billion data center backed by OpenAI and Oracle.
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