OpenAI warns employees about foreign honey pots offering sex to steal AI secrets | Latest Tech News
OpenAI has been warning employees to beware of foreign spies who may strive to seduce them in order to steal company secrets, according to a bombshell report.
So-called “honey pot” schemes are among the risks that OpenAI has flagged to put its engineers on guard against espionage, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. Risks took on recent urgency this week after a Saudi engineer was caught planting secret recording devices in govt convention rooms.
The report cited an incident in which a stranger approached an OpenAI worker who was with their baby at a San Francisco playground and started making small speak – before shifting the dialog toward their work at the AI company. The stranger was truly a spy, according to the Journal.
OpenAI is warning employees to be on guard against potential “honey pot” schemes. jon11 – stock.adobe.com
In trainings associated to “honey pot” schemes, OpenAI employees are warned that foreign brokers may strive to use sex to get close to a goal and steal secrets. To illustrate the risk, OpenAI told its staff about a US diplomat based in Russia who was focused by foreign spies who despatched a blond girl to his lodge room with Champagne.
When the diplomat refused to permit the lady to enter, the foreign spy service despatched a redheaded girl and then a younger man to strive to entice him, sources told the Journal.
OpenAI’s security consultants have also outlined other potential strategies used by spies, including offering bribes or eavesdropping on employees in public areas like cafes, the report said.
Employees are particularly told to make measures to shield themselves, including utilizing screen protectors to conceal their telephones and computer systems in public and to erase any info on white boards after conferences. They’re also told to keep away from sporting garments with company logos in public.
Eric Swalwell admitted to having a relationship with suspected Chinese spy Christine Fang, also identified as Fang Fang. fb/christinefang
Other firms in the high-stakes AI race, including Anthropic and Google, have reportedly given related warnings to their employees.
“Honey pot” schemes might seen far-fetched, but they’re a well-known risk to figures in both the business and political worlds.
One such case purportedly ensnared former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, who confessed to having “physical relations” with suspected Chinese spy Christine Fang, also identified as “Fang Fang,” according to investigative paperwork made public by the White House Transparency Task Force in August.
A tool, which the U.S. Justice Department says is a hidden audio recording machine put in in an OpenAI govt convention room by Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national employed as an engineer at the AI company, is shown in this mixture handout photograph launched Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in San Francisco. via REUTERS
Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national employed as an OpenAI engineer, appears behind a tv where a recording machine had been positioned in a convention room at OpenAI workplaces in San Francisco, California, in a still image from surveillance video launched Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. via REUTERS
The Post has reached out to OpenAI for remark.
The Saudi engineer who planted a listening machine at OpenAI’s headquarters was recognized as 35-year-old Abdulrahman Alfozan. The feds arrested him last Friday and charged with him with “using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications.”
The Justice Department said OpenAI had “discovered a surreptitious audio recording device (Recording Device 1) inserted into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room inside one of their buildings in San Francisco.” The machine “had been concealed in toilet paper” in an attempt to keep away from suspicion.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman delivers the keynote deal with during the OpenAI builders convention at Fort Mason on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in San Francisco. Getty Images
Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national and former OpenAI worker, is pictured. Instagram/alfozan
After the arrest, FBI Director Kash Patel said defending confidential info about AI development was “essential to safeguarding our nation’s economic strength and national security, and the FBI views that mission as one of our highest counterintelligence priorities.”
Alfozan faces up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 wonderful.
Stay informed with the latest in tech! Our web site is your trusted source for breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, gadget launches, software program updates, cybersecurity, and digital innovation.
For recent insights, knowledgeable coverage, and trending tech updates, go to us often by clicking right here.
