A former OpenAI engineer accused of secretly planting listening devices inside the artificial intelligence giant's facilities was communicating with Saudi royalty and searching company records involving the Kingdom before his arrest, according to federal prosecutors who are investigating whether his alleged surveillance was intended to benefit a foreign government.In a detention filing Sunday, prosecutors revealed that Saudi government officials helped arrange international travel for Abdulrahman Alfozan's wife and three-month-old son shortly after his arrest.They also raised concerns about Alfozan's potential access to foreign government assistance if released.Prosecutors disclosed that Alfozan had been in frequent contact with a member of the Saudi royal family who sought to recruit him for a Saudi artificial intelligence initiative.The filing does not allege that Saudi Arabia directed his alleged surveillance.A man described as Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national formerly employed as an OpenAI engineer, looks behind a television where a recording device had been placed at a conference room in OpenAI offices, in a still image from surveillance video.
(Reuters)TRUMP INTEL CHIEF WARNS AI FIRMS ON HACKS, SAYS NEW DEPARTMENT IS THE 'COP ON THE BEAT'The investigation remains ongoing and "may result in additional serious charges," prosecutors said.Investigators are examining whether Alfozan sought to record sensitive OpenAI meetings to advance his own business interests, aid a foreign government or both.According to the filing, Alfozan spent weeks researching how to construct an encrypted recording device with live-listening capabilities and where inside OpenAI he could capture sensitive conversations.He allegedly used an internal OpenAI tool to identify meeting rooms used by company executives and outside partners before concealing a customized audio recorder behind a television in an executive conference room in late September.The room regularly hosted leadership ...