{"id":30965,"date":"2026-04-18T03:35:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T03:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/30965\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T03:35:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T03:35:19","slug":"anti-al-attacker-who-tried-to-murder-openai-ceo-sam-altman-found-chatgpt-awesome-because","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/30965\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Anti-Al\u2019 attacker who tried to murder OpenAI CEO Sam Altman found ChatGPT \u2018awesome\u2019 because\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\u2018Anti-Al\u2019 Daniel Moreno-Gama, who is accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman<\/a>‘s home, didn\u2019t always hate artificial intelligence (AI), a report has said, adding that the 20-year-old Texas man once thought it was pretty great but for a wrong reason. Moreno-Gama had actually been a fan of ChatGPT during his high school years because, as he put it, he could \u201ccheat on everything\u201d.This detail emerged from a podcast interview released this week by media startup Longview, as per a report by The Wall Street Journal. Moreno-Gama recorded the interview under the fake name \u201cDiscord Dan,\u201d but the podcasters decided to reveal his real identity after the attack. <\/p>\n

Why Sam Altman\u2019s attacker converted from fan to \u2018hater\u2019<\/p>\n

According to Moreno-Gama, the turning point came when he started reading prominent AI critics, particularly Eliezer Yudkowsky, who wrote in a 2023 Time magazine column that building a superintelligent AI would most likely result in the death of every person on Earth.\u201cI was like, OK, I hope he’s kind of wrong. But over time, I realised very few of his main criticisms ever got refuted,\u201d Moreno-Gama said in the interview.He began debating strangers online, pestering his parents and friends about AI risks, and going deep into literature. Online, he used the handle \u201cButlerian Jihadist\u201d \u2013 a reference to a fictional war between humans and thinking machines from the classic science fiction novel Dune.\u201cI kind of became a bit, like, annoying, a bit autistic about that,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

Daniel Moreno-Gama joined and left peaceful movements<\/p>\n

Moreno-Gama\u2019s mother suggested he channel his fears into activism. In 2024, he joined PauseAI, a group that advocates pausing the development of the most powerful AI systems. He posted on their Discord server and wrote articles on Substack warning of humanity’s extinction.Maxime Fournes, PauseAI’s CEO, confirmed that Moreno-Gama had posted 34 messages on the group’s public server. \u201cNone of his messages contained explicit calls to violence,\u201d Fournes said, adding, \u201cWe unequivocally condemn this attack and all forms of violence.\u201dOn another online forum called Stop AI, Moreno-Gama had directly asked whether \u201cspeaking about violence\u201d would get him banned. He was told yes \u2014 and stopped posting.Ironically, in the very podcast interview where he discussed his growing \u2018radicalisation\u2019.\u201cBefore we even think about violence, we need to exhaust all our peaceful means. I think protesting, I think sharing information, I think doing podcasts like this \u2014 that needs to come way before we even consider that,” he said.Andy Mills, Longview’s editor in chief, explained that the podcast had initially promised Moreno-Gama anonymity. But, Mills said, \u201chis own actions and online statements have since established a clear link between his pseudonym and his real identity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Moreno-Gama, who is accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman‘s home, didn\u2019t always…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[150],"tags":[611,17699,21065,15780,613,9230,21066,581],"class_list":["post-30965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sam-altman","tag-chatgpt","tag-daniel-moreno-gama","tag-eliezer-yudkowsky","tag-molotov-cocktail-attack","tag-openai","tag-openai-ceo","tag-pauseai","tag-sam-altman"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116423617613587809","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}