A Saudi national charged with secretly planting a recording device in one of OpenAI's meeting rooms has been accused of having "considerable support" from the Saudi government, according to a court filing, external in California.
US prosecutors claimed Abdulrahman Alfozan, who worked for the AI firm, was in "frequent communication... with a member of the Saudi royal family", and say a member of the country's military paid for a one-way flight to Saudi Arabia for his wife and son after his arrest.
The 35-year-old engineer was on Monday deemed a flight risk and denied bail, pending trial.
The Saudi government did not immediately respond to BBC requests for comment.
Alfozan had worked at OpenAI for around a year before he allegedly made his attempt to plant an audio recorder.