backing

US federal prosecutors allege the defendant was in frequent contact with unnamed member of royal family.

An ex-OpenAI engineer accused of planting a recording device in an executive conference room at the AI company appears to have received considerable support from the Saudi government, United States prosecutors have said in a court filing.

Federal prosecutors allege that the defendant, Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, was in frequent communication with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family and that a Saudi military official paid for a one-way plane ticket for Alfozan’s wife and young son to return to Saudi Arabia after his arrest, according to the court document, made public late on Sunday.

Prosecutors made those allegations as they asked a federal judge to keep Alfozan in US custody to await trial, arguing he is a flight risk. Alfozan, a Saudi national and lawful permanent resident in the US, is scheduled to appear in federal court in San Francisco later on Monday.

The case has highlighted security challenges around sensitive AI research as companies and governments compete fiercely for an edge in the transformational technology.

“The defendant went to significant lengths to create customized, encrypted recording devices to secretly record highly sensitive meetings involving senior OpenAI personnel and executives, high-level business counterparts, and government officials, all while communicating with individuals of significance in Saudi Arabia and pursuing opportunities in — and making plans to travel to — Saudi Arabia,” prosecutors wrote in a detention memo.

The Saudi government media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A lawyer for Alfozan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawyer, William Pernik, previously asked for Alfozan to be released from custody, subject to conditions including location monitoring and surrendering his passport, and said Alfozan had spent the last 15 years in the US and had applied to become a citizen.

The lawyer said a planned trip by Alfozan to Saudi Arabia this month was booked before he was under investigation and was for “family and immigration reasons”, according to a court filing.

Investigation remains active

US prosecutors charged Alfozan last week with using an electronic device to intercept oral communications. Alfozan plugged a recording device into the back of a television in an executive conference room at one of OpenAI’s San Francisco buildings, according to a criminal complaint.

Meetings involving government officials took place in the conference room around the time the device was installed, according to the prosecutors’ detention memo.

Prosecutors said the investigation remains active and additional charges could be brought against Alfozan.

A member of the Saudi royal family sought to recruit Alfozan for an AI-focused role in Saudi Arabia, writing in one message, “Saudi needs you more then [sic] the US!” Alfozan replied, “100,” according to messages cited by prosecutors.

Before his arrest, Alfozan was scheduled to fly to Riyadh during a planned two-month parental leave. His wife told investigators that she and their son planned to move permanently to Saudi Arabia and that Alfozan eventually intended to join them, according to prosecutors.

In an Arabic-language interview on the Identity Capital podcast last month, Alfozan said that he visits Saudi Arabia three or four times a year, follows developments there and advises or mentors Saudi startups.

He said meeting Prince Mohammed bin Salman, then deputy crown prince, during a 2016 gathering with young Saudi tech workers in Silicon Valley persuaded him to learn at a top tech company before bringing those skills back home.

While Alfozan was working at Facebook, he and other Saudis in Silicon Valley formed a consulting initiative that linked Saudi public- and private-sector organisations with expertise in big data, the internet of things and machine learning.

OpenAI previously said it discovered the device on September 30 and referred the matter to the FBI.

Al Jazeera has reached out to the Saudi embassy for comment.

IF Leonardo DiCaprio, a man who seems to have dated half the Victoria’s Secret catalogue, can’t whip his shirt off on a Hawaiian beach without critics likening him to a beached whale, what hope is there for the rest of us blokes?

The recent photos of Leo catching some rays sparked a frenzy of online trolling, with keyboard warriors gleefully pointing out that the actor – shock horror – no longer possesses the boyish physique he sported 30 years ago on the bow of the Titanic.

Apparently, we are now fair game and it’s open season on the male waistline. 

Leo’s holiday flab, the internet decided, was public property, ripe for mockery. 

They disparagingly call it the “Dad Bod” – even though Leo, as far as we know, has yet to produce any sprogs. 

It’s a term delivered with a patronising smirk, conjuring images of a bloke whose primary exercise consists of walking to the fridge between repeats of Top Gear.

But let’s pause for a second and reverse it. Would any sane person ever dream of pointing a camera at a woman on a beach and laughing at her “Mum Bod”?

You’d be cancelled in an instant with feminists queuing up to condemn you. 

Yet, when it comes to blokes, it seems the rules against bodyshaming don’t apply. 

Now, I’ll acknowledge the elephant in the room, women have put up with relentless, toxic body scrutiny for decades. 

But it’s the women in my life who have been most gleeful when scrutinising poor Leo.

It’s only fair they argue, after all 51-year-old Leo isn’t shy at letting his own preferences be known, dating a string of twenty-somethings who look like they’ve never consumed a carb in their short lives.

But underneath the jokes about Leo’s paunch, there is a serious side to all of this.

The pressure to look like a muscle bound Marvel actor is driving ordinary blokes to desperate measures – and contributing to poor male mental health.

Gym memberships are skyrocketing, not just because men suddenly care about their cardiovascular health, but because they are chasing the Hollywood aesthetic.

We are witnessing an epidemic of normal blokes turning to unregulated peptides and sometimes illegal supplements, desperately trying to keep up with the unachievable, steroid-assisted standards plastered across their Instagram feeds.

I’ll hold my hands up and confess I am one of the millions who has tried the fat jabs.

After years of miserable yo-yo dieting, I would always end exactly back where I started, so I finally caved and got on the Mounjaro.

The pharmaceutical quick fix certainly worked, helping me to lose a couple of stone within six months despite the dreaded side effects.

But despite my smaller frame – and annoyingly pricey new wardrobe to match – I still have to contend with the toxic pressure of the perfect body burrowed in my own brain.

And I’m far from the only one. Just look at the male celebs who are supposedly at the top of the food chain. 

Pop icon Robbie Williams has been open about his own torturous battle with his weight and his use of fat jabs, telling fans: “I could write a book about self loathing where my body image is concerned, like pure self hatred.

“The struggle is real. The sadness is shocking. I’ve had it all my life. And it won’t abate.”

James Corden has faced abuse from those obsessed with his waistline, even channelling his frustration with the industry into Nessa and Smith’s love story in Gavin & Stacey. 

He once said: “If an alien came back and they had to take a reading on planet Earth by just watching films or TV, they would imagine that if you are chubby or fat or big, you never really fall in love, you never have sex. Certainly no-one really ever finds you attractive.”

Even the supposed “hunks” are miserable. While Jason Momoa has shrugged off “Dad Bod” criticism, Zac Efron has spoken out about the severe dehydration and “pretty bad depression” he suffered to get his Baywatch body.

While Chris Pratt had to ditch his Parks & Rec “dad bod” to break Hollywood as the ripped Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy.

But then found himself criticised for being too thin, forcing him to warn critics to back off: “Just because I am a male doesn’t mean I’m impervious to your whispers. Body shaming hurts.”

So it’s little wonder that the next generation of young men are endlessly preening themselves in the mirror. 

They call it looksmaxxing, a dystopian online cult where young lads obsess over every facet of their appearance to fit a very specific alien-like visage.

We have genuinely reached a point where an influencer known as Clavicular, literally smacks himself in the face with a hammer in a bid to attempt to reshape his jawline, and is watched in this mindboggling process by millions of impressionable youngsters. 

We have created a world where teenage boys are learning that blunt-force facial trauma is preferable to looking like a normal human being.

It’s time to call time on the madness.

If the price of a Hollywood physique is a lifetime of misery, macros counting, and taking a hammer to your own cheekbones, you can count me out.

Let’s leave Leo to enjoy his Hawaiian holiday in peace, and please give us blokes a bloody break too.