Saudi Arabia · OpenAI · FBI · X · U.S. · Ars Technica
Accused OpenAI spy had folder called “Saudi Gov Docs,” FBI confirms
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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.
Key facts
- OpenAI and the US government are both aware that Saudi Arabia has dedicated this entire year to advancing its AI through an effort called “Vision 2030.” Sam Altman himself joined Donald Trump
- On October 4, Alfozan accessed a folder called “Saudi Gov Docs,” the FBI found
- Since moving to the US in 2009, he’d received technical degrees from MIT and UC Berkeley
- Those logs date back to 2025, the same year he started at OpenAI, and continued up until October 5
Summary
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. 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. The FBI arrested Alfozan days before he could hop a plane, Missakian said.