Anxiety, resentment around AI spur violence against tech’s figureheads

NEW YORK – Several proponents of artificial intelligence (AI) have become the victims of violent acts in recent days, reflecting the existential dread around the emerging technology – and the public’s growing resentment towards its advocates.

Billionaire OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is among the most prominent, with someone throwing a Molotov cocktail at his home on April 10. A suspect, 20-year-old Daniel Moreno-Gama, has been arrested.

But the violence extends beyond Silicon Valley’s elite to include local policymakers, like Mr Ron Gibson, a city council member in Indianapolis who had 13 bullets shot through his front door after expressing support for a data centre construction project.

Those behind the April 6 attack also left a note reading “no data centres”.

“Anxiety about emerging technologies is nothing new,” said researcher Nirit Weiss-Blatt, whose Substack newsletter AI Panic covers the growing hostility towards artificial intelligence.

“With Artificial Intelligence, though, it feels more extreme,” she added, noting that the suspect Moreno-Gama was radicalised through the “‘AI existential risk’ rhetoric” rather than its employment or environmental impacts.

“We need to have a broader discussion about how the ‘extinction risk’ rhetoric radicalizes the most vulnerable individuals,” Dr Weiss-Blatt said.

“The fact that some edges justify violent acts is very troubling, and it needs to be condemned as strongly as possible.”

The attacks against AI figureheads have no demonstrable ties to one another, nor do they claim affiliation with any shared organisation.

But University of Bath international relations lecturer Mauro Lubrano said calling such actors lone wolves “is actually not that accurate, because these groups are embedded in some sort of digital ecosystem”.

Dr Lubrano connects the recent string of violence to the vandalism of Tesla vehicles and dealerships in 2025 in response to founder Elon Musk’s work with the administration of US President Donald Trump.

The recent reports of violence have led to an increased demand for physical protection among tech companies.

“In recent months, we’ve definitely seen a clear uptick,” said Mr Rory Moran, who oversees executive security at United Security.

“These AI and technology companies, especially the big ones, they’re always in the news, and when that happens… we’re going to see an uptick in interest in potential attacks,” he added.

The response to the violence on the Internet has been less panicked.

Many commentators on platforms like TikTok have downplayed or justified the attacks, comparing those involved to Luigi Mangione, the suspect behind the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024.

But some organisations advocating for limiting AI expansion, such as Pause AI and Stop AI, now worry they will be associated with endorsing violent acts against AI proponents.

Mr Dean Ball, a former AI policy advisor for the Trump administration, wrote in a post on X: “The rhetoric of the pause/stop crowd is out of control and it has gotten worse with time.”

“This rhetoric always had the potential to cause violence and now this seems to be no longer hypothetical,” he added.

Stop AI co-founder Valerie Sizemore said the Molotov cocktail suspect Moreno-Gama posted on Stop AI’s Discord server to ask if he could discuss violence against AI founders.

The server’s moderators said posting about such subject matter would get him banned, and he never returned.

“Violence will not help,” Ms Sizemore said, instead urging people concerned about AI to opt for “non-violent actions”.

“It is really my hope that this is the icebreaking moment that leads everyone to listen to the public and start trying to have the conversation we need to have,” she said. AFP