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.
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. The Saudi national was arrested on October 9, three days before he was scheduled to depart San Francisco with his wife and infant son on a one-way flight to Riyadh. 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.
“Saudi needs you more than [sic] the US!” the member wrote, part of a campaign to recruit the defendant, said prosecutors. Alfozan agreed but said he wouldn’t leave until his stock vested. 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.
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.
