OpenAI warns employees about foreign honey pots offering sex to steal AI secrets

OpenAI has been warning employees to beware of foreign spies who could try to seduce them in order to steal company secrets, according to a bombshell report.So-called “honey pot” schemes are among the dangers that OpenAI has flagged to put its engineers on guard against espionage, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.Risks took on fresh urgency this week after a Saudi engineer was caught planting secret recording devices in executive conference rooms.The report cited an incident in which a stranger approached an OpenAI employee who was with their child at a San Francisco playground and began making small talk – before shifting the conversation toward their work at the AI company.

The stranger was actually a spy, according to the Journal.In trainings related to “honey pot” schemes, OpenAI employees are warned that foreign agents could try to use sex to get close to a target and steal secrets.To illustrate the risk, OpenAI told its workers about a US diplomat based in Russia who was targeted by foreign spies who sent a blond woman to his hotel room with Champagne.When the diplomat refused to allow the woman to enter, the foreign spy service sent a redheaded woman and then a young man to try to entice him, sources told the Journal.OpenAI’s security experts have also outlined other possible methods used by spies, including offering bribes or eavesdropping on employees in public spaces like cafes, the report said.Employees are specifically told to make measures to protect themselves, including using screen protectors to hide their phones and computers in public and to erase any information on white boards after meetings.

They’re also told to avoid wearing clothes with company logos in public.Other companies in the high-stakes AI race, including Anthropic and Google, have reportedly given similar warnings to their employees.“Honey pot” schemes may seen far-fetched, but they are a well-known threat to figures in both the business and...