Acting at the direction of an entity requires that the entity actually instructed him to spy. If he was later planning to sell secrets to a foreign country or another corporation, but had not received their blessing ahead of time, that falls under acting on his own initiative. A foreign country is any country other than the US. Only government-backed efforts count. Another corporation is any corporation other than OpenAI, whether US-based or not. Spying at the direction of a foreign AI lab counts as a corporation, not a foreign country, even if the lab has some amount of state backing.
Whistleblowing means trying to record conversations about wrongdoing or unethical behavior at OpenAI to either turn over to US authorities or make public. Similarly, leaking means trying to record conversations to make public, but does not require a desire to expose wrongdoing.
Recording for other reasons covers things like workplace drama, stalking, etc. This is a catch-all for motives that don't involve trying to acquire secret or sensitive information.
Ideally, a court ruling will be used to resolve, but if one does not become available and court proceedings are no longer ongoing, I'll use my best judgment based on reporting.
Update 2026-10-13 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): - State-backed corporations count as another corporation if direction or coordination comes from the company.
Direction coming from a national intelligence service (or similar) counts as a foreign country.
1,000@ChurlishGambit If the direction/coordination comes from the company, that's at the direction of another corporation. If it comes from a national intelligence service or similar, that's at the direction of a foreign country. Basically, a state-backed corporation counts as a corporation, not as a foreign country.