A former OpenAI engineer, accused of planting a bug in its San Francisco office, reportedly had a contact close to the royal family in Saudi Arabia.
Despite his arrest, prosecutors have alleged that Alfozan’s wife and 3-month-old son left the US on business-class tickets purchased by a Saudi military official.
As per prosecutors, in the “days surrounding the time period that the device was installed, OpenAI executives met with government officials in that very room,” alleging the “defendant’s conduct could pose a danger to the national security of the United States. The filing also showed photographs of locations and internal searches regarding meetings between OpenAI and Saudi government officials. As per CBS, the notes in the filing suggested that Alfozan planned to take back the devices before parting ways with the ChatGPT company.
Saudi national Abdulrahman Alfozan was arrested earlier this month and he has been accused of tapping artificial intelligence tools to help him develop encrypted recording devices and identify meeting rooms used by OpenAI executives, government officials and business partners. The ex-OpenAI engineer is detained pending trial and is scheduled to appear before the court in November.
