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Ex-OpenAI engineer, who planted bug in office, connected to Saudi Royal family: Report | World News

Hindustan Times

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Original article · فارسی

A former OpenAI engineer accused of placing a hidden recording device in the company's San Francisco office reportedly had contact with someone close to Saudi Arabia's royal family.

A man described as Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national employed as an OpenAI engineer, looks behind a television where a recording device had been placed at a conference room in OpenAI offices, (via REUTERS)
A man identified as Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national who worked as an OpenAI engineer, looks behind a television where a recording device had been placed in a conference room at OpenAI's offices, (via REUTERS)

Saudi national Abdulrahman Alfozan was arrested earlier this month. He is accused of using artificial intelligence tools to help build recording devices that could hide what they were doing and of finding meeting rooms used by OpenAI leaders, government officials and business partners.

According to an 11-page court filing from the US Justice Department, obtained by CBS News, the former OpenAI employee exchanged WhatsApp messages with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family. The person encouraged him to leave the US and join Saudi Arabia's AI program instead.

"Saudi needs you more than [sic] the US!" the royal family member wrote while trying to recruit him, prosecutors said. Alfozan agreed but said he would not leave until his company stock had vested, meaning he had earned the right to keep it.

The court filing also included photos of different locations and searches of internal information about meetings between OpenAI and Saudi government officials. According to CBS News, notes in the filing suggested that Alfozan planned to take the devices back before leaving the ChatGPT company.

Prosecutors said that in the "days surrounding the time period that the device was installed, OpenAI executives met with government officials in that very room." They argued that the "defendant's conduct could pose a danger to the national security of the United States."

Alfozan was arrested on October 9, three days before he was due to leave San Francisco with his wife and infant son on a one-way flight to Riyadh.

Also Read | OpenAI engineer arrested over hidden recording device had booked one-way ticket to Saudi

Prosecutors also claimed that, despite Alfozan's arrest, his wife and 3-month-old son left the US on business-class tickets bought by a Saudi military official.

The former OpenAI engineer remains in custody while awaiting trial and is due to appear in court in November.