By AFP
Publication Date: 2026-04-29 06:50:00
Several artificial intelligence advocates have been victims of violence in recent days, reflecting the existential fear of the new technology — and the public’s growing resentment toward its proponents.
One of the most prominent people is the billionaire CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman. On April 10, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at his house. A suspect, 20-year-old Daniel Moreno-Gama, was arrested.
But the violence extends beyond Silicon Valley’s elite to include local politicians like Ron Gibson, an Indianapolis city councilman whose front door was shot through with 13 bullets after he expressed support for a data center construction project.
Those behind the April 6 attack also left a note saying “No data centers.”
“Fear of new technologies is nothing new,” said researcher Nirit Weiss-Blatt, whose Substack newsletter AI Panic reports on the growing hostility toward artificial intelligence.
“However, with artificial intelligence it is…
