Molotov at Altman's home

A 20-year-old man was arrested after police said he threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman’s San Francisco home and later threatened OpenAI’s headquarters. (cnbc.com) San Francisco police said officers responded at 4:12 a.m. Friday to a fire at Altman’s North Beach residence, where an “incendiary destructive device” burned an exterior gate before the suspect fled on foot. (nbcnews.com) At 5:07 a.m., officers went to the 1400 block of Third Street after a man threatened to burn down a building, recognized him from the earlier incident, and detained him at OpenAI’s office. Charges were still pending as of April 10, and police said the investigation remained open. (nbcnews.com) OpenAI said no one was hurt. In a post on his blog after the attack, Altman wrote that he was sharing a photo of his husband and son in the hope it might dissuade “the next person” from targeting his house. (nbcnews.com, blog.samaltman.com) Altman used the same post to argue that artificial intelligence should be “democratized” and that power over the technology “cannot be too concentrated.” He also wrote that fear about artificial intelligence is justified and called for a broader social response to its risks. (blog.samaltman.com) The attack landed days before a separate fight in federal court in Oakland, where jury selection is slated to begin on April 27 in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Altman, OpenAI, and others. Musk says OpenAI abandoned its founding nonprofit mission; OpenAI has denied wrongdoing. (cnbc.com, courtlistener.com) In an April 7 filing, Musk’s lawyers said he would seek to remove Altman from OpenAI’s nonprofit board and remove Altman and Greg Brockman as officers of the for-profit arm if he wins at trial. Musk also wants OpenAI returned to what his lawyers described as an “actual nonprofit.” (cnbc.com) Altman answered that pressure in public before trial. He wrote that he had “held the line” against what he described as Musk’s push for unilateral control of OpenAI, and said that decision helped preserve the company’s independence. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) OpenAI and Musk have been fighting over the company’s structure since Musk sued in 2024. OpenAI said this week that Musk’s case is a “harassment campaign,” while Musk’s filing says Altman and OpenAI defrauded him after he donated $38 million to the lab. (cnbc.com) For now, the criminal case and the civil case are moving on separate tracks: one through San Francisco police, the other toward an April 27 courtroom fight over who gets to shape OpenAI’s future. (nbcnews.com, courtlistener.com)