After FBI arrested a Saudi National for hiding a spy device at OpenAI, employees said ‘not surprised’: Controls are so lenient that …
The concerns came into focus after FBI announced on October 13 that a Saudi national, Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, had been arrested and charged with allegedly placing a hidden recording device in an OpenAI executive conference room. OpenAI employees raised concerns about the company’s security practices even before ChatGPT launched in late 2022, according to five people familiar with the matter cited by Reuters.
Some employees warned OpenAI’s leadership and board that its security controls were too weak and could allow outsiders, including foreign governments, to access sensitive information about its artificial intelligence (AI) technology, according to a Reuters report. Abdulrahman Alfozan allegedly used an AI tool designed for OpenAI employees to search for internal documents about executives travelling to Saudi Arabia, according to a court filing cited by Reuters. In August, Sottiaux reassigned around a quarter of OpenAI’s production engineers to work on improving its security infrastructure, according to one person familiar with the matter.
Former OpenAI employees say they were not surprised after the company discovered a hidden audio recording device in an executive conference room in October, as they had raised concerns about its internal security practices for years. Some employees believed that the company’s internal controls were so weak that foreign governments or other outside actors could easily obtain sensitive details about its technology. He also reportedly looked for information about which OpenAI officials were likely to attend meetings with Saudi ministers. OpenAI has reportedly begun taking steps to address its internal security concerns. Thibault Sottiaux, a senior executive overseeing product development, has recently taken charge of an internal effort to secure the company’s systems.