In January, podcaster Andy Mills interviewed an AI doomer who had advocated on Discord for killing tech execs. Still, when news broke last week that a 20-year-old had been arrested for attempting to murder OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Mills was shocked.
“When I saw that they had released the name of this guy,” Mills told The Post, “I was like, ‘Holy s–t. It’s Dan.’”
On Monday, Daniel Moreno-Gama was arrested for throwing a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s San Francisco house on April 10, then attempting to burn down OpenAI’s headquarters some four miles away. Investigators allege he was carrying an anti-AI manifesto that read, “If I am going to advocate for others to kill and commit crimes, then I must lead by example … .” The DOJ has charged him with attempted murder and arson.
The interview, “Sam Altman’s Attacker, In His Own Words,” debuted Thursday.
Mills, host of the podcast “The Last Invention,” which explores different schools of thought about artificial intelligence, found Moreno-Gama on a Discord channel, Pause AI, dedicated to talking about the dangers of AI.
Hiding behind the username Butlerian Jihadist — the title of a novel in the “Dune” series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson — the Spring, Texas, college student was anonymously flirting with using violence against tech executives.
“Will speaking about violence get me banned?” he asked moderators.
“[I] reached out and said, ‘Hey, man, what did you have in mind when you talk about violence?’” Mills told The Post. “And he said, ‘How about Luigi-ing some tech CEOs?’” — a reference to Luigi Mangione, who is accused of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024.
During the interview, when the host asked if the Lone Star College student really thought violence against AI executives was a good idea, Moreno-Gama softened a bit.
“I didn’t really mean that as a threat or anything,” Moreno-Gama said. “I think before we even think about violence, we need to exhaust all our peaceful means first. I think protesting, I think sharing information — I think that needs to come way before we even consider [violence].”
Mills pressed: “Do you think that if we continue to see the industry move in the direction it’s moving now, that by whatever means necessary, we have to stop the extinction of the human race?”
Moreno-Gama paused for several seconds before replying, “I’ll say no comment.”
“He seemed earnest and intelligent, and very informed,” Mills recalled. “He was incredibly well informed on the AI doomer position.”
In their conversation, Moreno-Gama distanced himself from calls to violence and instead advocated for policies that would regulate the size and number of data centers.
“I don’t believe I’m a violent person,” Moreno-Gama said. “I would normally only advocate for violence as the absolute final, like, I don’t want to say final solution, but you know, the final … final … OK, you get what I’m saying.”
Moreno-Gama recalled first encountering AI as a high-schooler.
“When ChatGPT came out, at first I thought it was the greatest thing on Earth. I thought, this is awesome. I get to basically cheat on everything,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking about the repercussions that might have on learning at the time. I was just a sophomore [in high school].”
But soon, he took to YouTube and encountered the warnings of people like Eliezer Yudkowsky — a researcher and author who has said artificial general intelligence could threaten human life: “If anyone builds it, everyone dies.”
“If most people were as educated as me on this topic, if they knew the amount of information, the amount of statistics I knew, they would probably lean towards my position pretty heavily, I’m guessing,” Moreno-Gama told Mills. “Like, if there was a bridge where the engineer said there’s a 25% chance that it collapses, most people probably wouldn’t take that.”
He also admitted that he felt compelled to “do something to… get [AI doomerism] to be part of the public conscious a little bit more than it is currently.”
Still, Mills walked away from the interview with no sense that Moreno-Gama would actually act on the fantasy of “Luigi-ing” CEOs.
“I’ve talked to violent offenders plenty of times in my career,” the host told The Post. “He did not strike me as someone on the edge of violence… People say s–t on the internet all the time, like, ‘F–k ICE, let’s kill them.’ But how many people would actually do it?”
But he did detect a desire for notoriety.
“The guy was not only down to do [an interview], he was, like, pumped about it,” Mills recalled. “He was so eager to come on our podcast, he even followed up with us afterwards, being like, ‘When’s it gonna publish? When’s it gonna publish?’”
He also believes Moreno-Gama carried a hint of martyrdom.
“I think that there’s elements in his behavior that resemble some of what we see out of school shooters — this sort of desire to ‘Make sure people know it was me and I was a warrior.’”
