AI labs run counterespionage drills as OpenAI spy suspect booked one-way flights
rohanpaul_ai · x · 2026-10-16
WSJ reports that leading AI labs now routinely run counterespionage drills for employees. OpenAI regularly warns staff about bribes, cafe eavesdropping, compromised cleaning crews and "honey pot" seduction; Anthropic and Google employees have received similar briefings. OpenAI teaches staff to hide anything with its logo outside the office and to treat even kitchen and cleaning crews as possible leaks, with regular Slack reminders.
That level of paranoia reflects how much value now sits in a few labs, with roughly $3.5 trillion in upcoming IPOs.
Context: per FT, newly unsealed filings show Abdulrahman Alfozan — the OpenAI engineer charged with bugging an executive conference room — had booked one-way flights to Saudi Arabia for himself, his wife and a relative on October 12, three days after his arrest. Prosecutors used those bookings to seal the complaint on October 8, arguing he had the means and incentive to flee.
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