Accused OpenAI spy had folder called “Saudi Gov Docs,” FBI says
Ars Technica
1w · 10 min
US fears Saudi government will help ex-OpenAI engineer flee spying charges.
US fears Saudi government will help ex-OpenAI engineer flee spying charges.
On Monday, a court granted the US government’s request to deny release of a former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging a top-secret conference room to steal the frontier lab’s secrets.
In a court filing Sunday, US attorney Craig Missakian argued that Abdulrahman Alfozan must continue to be detained while the US makes its case that Alfozan brazenly spied on OpenAI, either for his own personal business gain or to benefit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Evidence showed that Alfozan had been chatting with a member of the KSA royal family on WhatsApp, while pursuing opportunities to permanently move back to Saudi Arabia during the country’s biggest AI push yet, the government argued. Shortly before his arrest, the FBI found he accessed a folder called “Saudi Gov Docs” on his iPhone, where he also allegedly stored photos of a second bug he planted in the offices.
With so much evidence against him, Alfozan—a Saudi national and US permanent legal resident—is a flight risk with seemingly endless support from the Saudi government, Missakian alleged.…
That's the opening of the original reporting — continue reading at Ars Technica for the rest.
Open at Ars Technica ↗
