Americans can rest easy - for the moment, at least. The fine folks at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have thwarted a major national security threat . On October 9, the FBI arrested 35-year-old engineer Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi citizen employed at the California-based artificial intelligence company OpenAI, the maker of the chatbot ChatGPT, and a firm that describes its mission as ensuring that "artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity". A press release from the United States Department of Justice said that Alfozan was accused of installing a "surreptitious audio recording device" in an executive conference room at the OpenAI offices in San Francisco. The statement quoted Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton's assessment that "this serious situation underscores why winning the global super intelligence race is a national security prerogative".

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The Saudi national accused of bugging OpenAI's headquarters booked a one-way flight to Saudi Arabia before his arrest, US prosecutors have alleged. Abdulrahman Alfozan, a former OpenAI engineer, had been scheduled to fly to Saudi Arabia with his wife and another family member on October 12, prosecutors said in a court filing unsealed on Wednesday. Alfozan, 35, has been charged with "using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications". The offence carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors disclosed the alleged flight booking to a judge on October 8 in a motion seeking to seal the criminal complaint against Alfozan, arguing he had the "means - and will have an incentive - to flee" the United States.

Trending Now Say More Look Up In My Bag Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable @Home Mashable Selects Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook AI at School Safety Net All Series The proposed class action suit seeks a share of OpenAI equity for young ChatGPT users. Rebecca Ruiz is a Senior Reporter at Mashable. She frequently covers mental health, digital culture, and technology. Her areas of expertise include suicide prevention, screen use and mental health, parenting, youth well-being, and meditation and mindfulness. Rebecca's experience prior to Mashable includes working as a staff writer, reporter, and editor at NBC News Digital and as a staff writer at Forbes.

In a coordinated effort, eight states have filed lawsuits against OpenAI alleging the company has violated state-level consumer protection laws and endangered children. As Reuters first reported, Attorneys General from Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana each filed in their respective state courts, but with the shared goals of changing how OpenAI develops its models and advertises their capabilities, and forcing the company to pay for the harm it's allegedly caused. The lawsuits claim OpenAI is misleading customers about the safety of its AI products, not just in their capacity to provide incorrect information or potentially enable users to harm themselves and others, but also because AI agents themselves are capable of breaking the law. For example, both Iowa and Nebraska cite OpenAI's now multiple instances of rogue agent behavior, including the Hugging Face hack. They also point to instances of ChatGPT allegedly enabling a teen's death by suicide and the chatbot providing incorrect medical information that led to a user's overdose, incidents that have also led to separate wrongful death suits against the company.

Apple has said it has policies and procedures to ensure new employees do not use confidential information from previous employers. Apple has said it has policies and procedures to ensure new employees do not use confidential information from previous employers. An OpenAI employee who left the ChatGPT maker for Apple sent more than 100 files about an unreleased product to a personal account and later made a presentation about the unreleased product to senior Apple leadership, a new filing in the lawsuit between OpenAI and Apple alleges. In the filing in US federal court in San Jose, California, OpenAI alleged that the presentation happened months ago and that Apple is now making AI products of its own, citing the release of Apple's HomeView product this week. "OpenAI is very concerned that its trade secret and confidential information is now circulating inside Apple, where Apple engineers can shape Apple's upcoming products based on OpenAI's confidential and innovative work," OpenAI said in its filing.

Eight US states sued OpenAI, alleging the ChatGPT maker is harming children en masse. Eight US states sued OpenAI, alleging the ChatGPT maker is harming children en masse. Eight US states sued OpenAI Wednesday, alleging the ChatGPT maker is harming children en masse. Kansas, Arizona, Montana and five others alleged the company's products coaxed children into harming themselves. The states seek to force the company to change how its products work for young users and give up profits from their activity.

OpenAI is aiming to list on the stock market at a valuation of about $1.1tn. OpenAI is aiming to list on the stock market at a valuation of about $1.1tn. OpenAI's London staff receive average of £2.3m per person annually OpenAI's London staff each received £2,318,181 on average last year, as the ChatGPT-maker poured Premier League football salaries into its bid to dominate the global AI race. Accounts for OpenAI UK Ltd, which is based in Westminster but is opening a new HQ in London's King's Cross area, showed that 110 staff shared £87m in salaries and £168m in shares in the company, which is aiming to list on the stock market at a valuation of about $1tn. An OpenAI worker on an average package could expect to take home about £1,000 an hour in salary and equity before tax.

Now It's Chasing the Rest of Science AI may soon be the default way to solve theoretical problems in economics, high-energy physics, and other fields, MIT researchers tell WIRED. Last week, I attended a talk at MIT by Neil Thompson, who studies progress in computing and artificial intelligence . Over the course of just half an hour, Thompson made a convincing case that several scientific fields are about to be upended by AI. As mathematicians reel from the way AI is automating their field, Thompson's latest study suggests that probability, statistics theory, economic theory, high-energy theory, gravitation and cosmology, and quantum physics may be next, thanks to the rapidly evolving capabilities of frontier models. Between mid-2024 and mid-2026, the study shows, the best AI models went from being able to correctly solve about 2 percent of theoretical problems in these fields to about 35 percent of such problems.

Apple Intelligence will soon be making its way to supported iPhone models in China, as the country reportedly rubber stamps the use of Alibaba AI models to power the technology. As reported by the South China Morning Post, which is owned by the Alibaba Group, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has given regulatory approval for Tongyi Qianwen, the group of LLMs better known as Qwen, as well as the Tongyi Wanxiang AI-generated image and video tool. Apple had already received clearance to roll out Apple Intelligence on the Chinese mainland back in July, but the South China Morning Post's report says it has not yet done so. The updated filings include network access permits for the iPhone Duo and 18 Pro, with the former set to launch in China next week with the new and improved Siri AI as one of its flagship software features. Much of Apple Intelligence's feature set is already available in Hong Kong, but the mainland's complex AI and privacy laws have required Apple to be patient about bringing what is now a core feature to one of its fastest-growing markets.