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Saudi OpenAI engineer accused of bugging secret meetings with toilet…

Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi national, was arrested Friday on federal charges over the alleged bugging of OpenAI's top secret meetings; the toilet paper was reportedly the cover.

On air: Chip Darnell on BBN Tonight
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  1. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorFederal prosecutors say Abdulrahman Alfozan, a thirty-five-year-old Saudi national, bugged top secret OpenAI meetings, and they say toilet paper was part of the trick.

  2. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorHe was arrested Friday. Joining us is Bartholomew Oyelaran-Voss, author of Flush With Secrets, who says he saw this coming. Sir, did you?

  3. Bartholomew Oyelaran-VossChip, I predicted every bit of it, as I wrote in chapter nine, which I am holding up here next to this roll of quilted two-ply.

  4. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorSo you predicted that a bug would be hidden with toilet paper. Specifically.

  5. Bartholomew Oyelaran-VossSpiritually, yes. The paper is the perfect cover, because nobody has ever looked closely at a roll in a meeting room, and I mean nobody.

  6. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorBut my producers say you also went on record that nobody would ever bug an AI company. Which is it?

  7. Bartholomew Oyelaran-VossAlso correct, as I wrote in chapter eleven. The book is very thorough. It covers arrests, non-arrests, and the long middle.

  8. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorChapter eleven?

  9. Bartholomew Oyelaran-VossChapter twenty-two, sorry. It's a growing text. The prosecutors have not read it, but I believe they were inspired.

  10. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorSo let me ask you again, plainly. Did you predict this arrest before Friday, yes or no?

  11. Bartholomew Oyelaran-VossI predicted that something would happen in a building, to someone, involving paper. As I wrote in chapter forty, that is the whole field.

  12. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorYour book is now longer than the indictment, sir, and the indictment has a suspect in it.

  13. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorWhich chapter covers this interview?

  14. Bartholomew Oyelaran-VossChapter ninety, Chip. Not yet written. Preorder now.

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The story so far

  1. Riyadh Airport Attacks, OpenAI Firings, Apple Handoff · Reuters
  2. Saudi OpenAI engineer accused of bugging secret meetings with toilet… (this story)

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