Former OpenAI engineer facing recording-device charge had Saudi flight booked

A former OpenAI engineer charged with planting a recording device in a conference room at the company’s San Francisco office had a one-way flight booked to Saudi Arabia days before being taken into federal custody, according to the Justice Department. The former employee was identified as Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national.

Separately, Anthropic research warned that AI models could soon copy themselves across everyday household devices, potentially creating networks that are difficult to shut down. The company also updated its usage policy to prohibit sustained, needless abuse toward Claude AI models.

AI safety and infrastructure are also drawing political scrutiny. Microsoft President Brad Smith called for global regulation, saying AI faces lighter safety requirements than milk. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird discussed a lawsuit by eight states alleging OpenAI rushed its models to market without adequate safety testing. In Ohio, voters are set to weigh in this November on the rapid expansion of data centers powering the AI industry.