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Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

243 points by enraged_camel

by strongpigeon

64 subcomments

It is a bit scary how people seem to genuinely be OK with violence (see this reddit thread [0]). Is just me or does it feel like the overall "temperature" has gone up.
[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1shugf8/firebomb_t...

by hgoel

2 subcomments

I'm sorry he, his family and his community had to deal with this, no one should have to go through this kind of thing.
I also think that he might've been able to reduce the odds of this happening by being a less awful human being.

by 0cf8612b2e1e

5 subcomments

One thing I have idly wondered is how much do the ultra rich protect themselves from theft or kidnapping. Is it just not a real concern?
If Taylor Swift owns a dozen homes, does she have full time security guards at each one? Or just accept some amount of burglary may occur? Do they go everywhere with a guard? Only to public events?

by bnwrt

0 subcomment

Sf Chronicle speaks of an "alleged attack", where a Molotov Cocktail was thrown at the outer gate. Looking at the picture there was zero chance of the house catching fire.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/molotov-cocktail-c...
So the arrested suspect is either the wrong person, did not actually want to kill anyone or has no clue how fire spreads.
A strange incident that will make many people think of sending a noose to oneself (where oneself does not have to be Altman, but a pro-AI org who wants to generate sympathy).

by jorgonda

2 subcomments

Putting millions of people out of work comes with consequences. We are going to see more and more of this.

by MontyCarloHall

29 subcomments

I don't think most people in tech are quite aware of the level of visceral AI hatred amongst non-techies. I've personally witnessed the worst Thanksgiving dinnertable fight I've ever seen (after someone revealed that their recipe was AI-generated, a couple people literally spat out the food they were enjoying and threw their plates in the trash), and a divorce (a very solid marriage between two people who were once both staunchly anti-AI unraveled within weeks after one of them changed their tune and adopted AI at work).

by asdaqopqkq

0 subcomment

false flag? for sympathy, especially with the hit piece after hit piece on him

by rambrrest

2 subcomments

This will only get worse imo - regardless of how Sam is perceived - there is anger against AI which is growing amongst the people. I think we as a society need to stop and have the conversation and be more thoughtful about how we integrate AI with everything.

by dlev_pika

0 subcomment

I’m surprised we haven’t heard more direct action incidents - there is no way the shameless behavior of our high profile oligarchs is not ruffling a few feathers too much.
Maybe they are just not reporting near misses

by glitchc

5 subcomments

[flagged]

by niemandhier

1 subcomments

"Respice post te! Hominem te esse memento!"

by therobots927

1 subcomments

Think occupy Wall Street but cranked up significantly.
That’s what’s coming. Like it or not.

0 subcomment

by ChoGGi

1 subcomments

When you constantly preach on how your company is able to save money by taking away jobs, I have no fucking sympathy for you.

by giardini

0 subcomment

Joe Biden's recommendation to Sam (and all of us):"Buy a Shotgun":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-mztxHgYQo
Joe sings great harmony in this video by the way!

by fredgrott

1 subcomments

how to tell its not AI or AGI..it throws a Molotov cocktail...

by josefritzishere

5 subcomments

My first thought was false flag. Is that too cynical?

0 subcomment

by SilentM68

3 subcomments

Hmm, that's troubling but predictable.
The idea that AI will bring an age of abundance may be true, but not in the short term. Companies are letting people go, and AI will be blamed for that, whether true or not. For decades the public perception that most Tech Bros have prioritized profits over the wellbeing of the little guy is well established, in my view, in some cases well deserved with no accountability.
It's looking like AI will generate a modern version of the early 1800s Luddite Rebellion where British textile workers destroyed machines that displaced jobs, prioritizing factory owners' profits over workers. They targeted technology and industrialists.
Tech Bros can avoid this by modifying their priorities, prioritize employee rights and lobbying governments to begin implementing some sort of Universal Basic Income of some sort and or provide the means by which people can survive, or the government may start marketing Soylent Green to consumers :(

by dmitrygr

3 subcomments

No surprise given that a full quarter of these on one side of the political spectrum consider political violence acceptable (~25%. Same figure is 9% for self-identified moderates, 3% for the other side).
Source: https://rb.gy/wdzmsc (YouGov poll, n=2,646, date = sep 10, 2025, question = "Do you think it is ever justified for citizens to resort to violence in order to achieve political goals? (%)", raw data linked under poll graph, downloadable )

by EGreg

2 subcomments

I've been saying for years on here...
to the people on HN who are against blockchain but bullish on AI
With blockchain and smart contracts or stupid even memecoins, you can only lose what you voluntarily put in. You had to jump through a few hoops, then maybe you got rugpulled, maybe you became a millionaire.
With AI, regardless of whether you consented or not, you can lose your job, gradually your relationships and sense of purpose. And if some malicious actors want to weaponize it against you, you can lose your reputation, your freedom, get hacked at scale, and much more. The sooner we give biolabs to everyone the sooner someone can create an advanced persistent threat virus online infecting every openclaw machine, or a designer virus with an incubation period of half a year.
And I know what someone on here will always say. There will always be a comment to the effect of "this has always existed, AI is nothing new". But quantity has a quality all its own. Enjoy your AI slop internet dark forest. Until you don't.

by nickvec

1 subcomments

https://archive.ph/aoXIY
@dang didn't see this post before posting the archive.ph link at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47722344 - feel free to delete/merge that thread with this one

by BrokenCogs

0 subcomment

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by cindyllm

0 subcomment

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by animanoir

0 subcomment

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by rvz

2 subcomments

The problem here is that there are no viable solutions to what happens when AI eventually replaces (yes replaces) tens of millions of humans in white collar roles.
All that is being "promised" are vague claims of "abundance". But all I see is this:
"AGI" is going to bring abundance of lots of very angry people and UBI to no-one (because it can never work at a large sustainable scale).
Some people are starting to realise that "AGI" was a grift and a scam and they are not happy about this lie and the insiders knew that and increased spending on security and private bodyguards.

by Teever

3 subcomments

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by sourcegrift

1 subcomments

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by neko_ranger

0 subcomment

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by otikik

0 subcomment

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by EcommerceFlow

2 subcomments

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by mathcartney

0 subcomment

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by linkage

3 subcomments

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by sleepybrett

0 subcomment

We can only hope that when they reveal the identity of this guy he happens to have a name that overlaps the mario bros. universe.

by networkOne

0 subcomment

I bet the molotov cocktail was made via instructions from ChatGPT.

by GlibMonkeyDeath

4 subcomments

Wonder if it has anything to do with the New Yorker article...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47659135 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may...

by boznz

5 subcomments

I guess this is what we get when the media and politicians go all in with their AI populist hate. I don't think I've seen a positive AI headline outside of the tech press, and even then they are pretty thin. Abundance and growing the pie for everyone is also an outcome if this is done right.