Judge orders fired OpenAI engineer to stay detained pre-trial over concerns about fleeing to Saudi Arabia
Source: Business Insider ·
Abdulrahman Alfozan, the OpenAI engineer arrested and accused of bugging the AI startup's office, will stay detained after a judge's decision Monday.
From the source
San Francisco's federal courthouse held the detention hearing for Abdulrahman Alfozan, the arrested and fired OpenAI engineer, on Monday.Brennan Smart/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesAbdulrahman Alfozan will stay jailed pre-trial, a San Francisco judge decided Monday.The engineer is accused of bugging a conference room at OpenAI, and he has been fired.Alfozan posed a risk of non-appearance, the judge said, after discussing his ties to Saudi Arabia.A former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging the AI startup's office was denied release by a San Francisco judge on Monday, meaning he'll have to mount his defense from jail.The Justice Department arrested Abdulrahman Alfozan on October 9 and charged him with using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications. He's accused of placing a recording device behind a television in an OpenAI conference room — an FBI affidavit includes photos of the device wrapped in toilet paper, and a man they say is Alfozan peering behind the TV.On…