Suspect arrested after incendiary device thrown at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home

By Hadas Gold, CNN

(CNN) — A 20-year-old man has been arrested after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the San Francisco home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman early Friday morning.

The incident happened around 4:00 am when a suspect “threw an incendiary destructive device” at Altman’s home, “causing a fire to one exterior gate” before fleeing on foot, according to statement from the San Francisco Police Department.

The same suspect then allegedly headed to OpenAI’s offices, where he was “threatening to burn down the building,” according to the statement. SFPD said that “charges are still pending at this time.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for OpenAI confirmed the incidents and said that “no one was hurt.”

Police have not indicated a possible motive behind the attack.

OpenAI’s offices have been the target of attacks in the past. In November, the company’s headquarters went on lockdown when a man “threatened to go to several OpenAI offices in San Francisco to ‘murder people,’” according to the San Francisco Standard. Protestors have also regularly demonstrated this year outside the ChatGPT maker’s building in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco.

“We deeply appreciate how quickly SFPD responded and the support from the city in helping keep our employees safe. The individual is in custody, and we’re assisting law enforcement with their investigation,” the OpenAI spokesperson said after Friday’s attack.

In a personal blog post on Friday evening, Altman shared a photo of his husband and baby “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 wrote.

Altman also mentioned “an incendiary article about me a few days ago,” appearing to refer to a lengthy New Yorker piece that questioned whether Altman “could be trusted.”

“Now I am awake in the middle of the night and pissed, and thinking that I have underestimated the power of words and narratives. This seems like as good of a time as any to address a few things,” Altman said, before laying out what he said are his beliefs about AI, the industry and his own personal conduct.

“I am a flawed person in the center of an exceptionally complex situation, trying to get a little better each year, always working for the mission,” he wrote.

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