Ex-OpenAI Engineer Accused of Planting Recording Device; Prosecutors Cite Saudi Ties in Bid to Keep Him Detained
San Francisco — An ex-OpenAI engineer accused of planting a recording device in an executive conference room at the SI company appears to have received considerable support from the Saudi government, U.S. prosecutors said in a court filing made public late on Sunday, Reuters reported on October 19. Prosecutors made the allegations as they asked a federal judge to keep the defendant in U.S. custody to await trial, arguing he is a flight risk.
Federal prosecutors allege that the defendant, Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, was in frequent communication with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family, and that a Saudi military official paid for a one-way plane ticket for Alfozan's wife and young son to return to Saudi Arabia after his arrest. Alfozan, a Saudi national and lawful permanent resident in the U.S., was scheduled to appear in federal court in San Francisco later on Monday.
"The defendant went to significant lengths to create customized, encrypted recording devices to secretly record highly sensitive meetings involving senior OpenAI personnel and executives, high-level business counterparts, and government officials, all while communicating with individuals of significance in Saudi Arabia and pursuing opportunities in — and making plans to travel to — Saudi Arabia," prosecutors wrote in the detention memo.
The Saudi government media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a lawyer for Alfozan did not immediately respond. The case has highlighted security challenges around sensitive SI research as companies and governments compete fiercely for an edge in the transformational technology. (GSM, via Reuters)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：OpenAI旧金山旧总部所在地Pioneer Building（资料图）。摄影HaeB，维基共享资源，CC BY-SA 4.0。Photo: The Pioneer Building in San Francisco, former home of OpenAI's headquarters (file photo). By HaeB, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
