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OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman. Photo: AFP / MANDEL NGAN
The luxury San Francisco home of OpenAI boss Sam Altman was hit by a Molotov cocktail on Friday (all times local), the company said, as police announced the arrest of a suspect.
No one was injured in the incident, and the firm behind the popular ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot would not confirm if the CEO was home at the time.
The motive for the attack, and subsequent threats to set fire to OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters – apparently by the same man – were not immediately known.
But they come as Altman’s profile has risen with the increasing use of AI both in the workplace and in the US military, amid fears it could massively disrupt employment patterns and cause irreversible societal changes.
Police in San Francisco, a hub for tech development, said they had responded after reports that someone had tried to set fire to a gate at the sprawling home.
A statement from the San Francisco Police Department said officers were dispatched to the home just after 4am.
“At the scene, officers learned that an unknown male subject threw an incendiary destructive device at a home, causing a fire to an exterior gate. The suspect then fled on foot,” SFPD said.
A short time later they were called to the firm’s offices where a man was making threats.
“When officers arrived on scene, they recognized the male to be the same suspect from the earlier incident and immediately detained him,” the statement said.
The man they arrested has not been named, but police said he was 20 years old.
A spokesman for OpenAI confirmed the attack on the chief executive’s residence and the threats to the San Francisco headquarters.
“We deeply appreciate how quickly SFPD responded and the support from the city in helping keep our employees safe,” the spokesman told AFP. “The individual is in custody, and we’re assisting law enforcement with their investigation.”
Altman and OpenAI have become targets for people protesting AI as a threat to humans.
Protesters have been particularly troubled by OpenAI’s decision to provide its technology to the US Department of Defence.
OpenAI last month said it was valued at US$852 billion after a funding round that raised US$122 billion.
The figure reflects the surging costs of computing power and came amid lingering questions about whether OpenAI and rival companies can generate sufficient revenue to cover expenses.
ChatGPT claims the top position in consumer AI, with more than 900 million weekly active users and some 50 million subscribers.
Use of ChatGPT’s online search engine has tripled over the course of a year, according to OpenAI.
– AFP
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