FBI Arrests OpenAI Engineer Accused of Hiding Recorder in Conference Room

An OpenAI engineer faces charges after authorities say he covertly placed a recording device in a conference room to try to obtain sensitive discussions about the company’s technology. Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national, was taken into custody on Friday, October 9, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco. The arrest came one week after the ChatGPT developer found an audio recording device concealed in a company conference room. The complaint did not name the company. In a separate statement, however, the company said it had found a “sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices,” alerted the FBI and dismissed the employee. An OpenAI spokesperson said: “We used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier. We referred the matter to the FBI, and we’re grateful to the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make an arrest. The FBI’s investigation is ongoing and we will continue to support their work.” The company statement also said: “At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data. The employee was terminated.” The complaint does not say what Alfozan may have intended to do with any recorded communications. OpenAI said the device was advanced, built to avoid detection and equipped with encryption and audio surveillance features. OpenAI further said it had evidence that the employee intended to install additional listening devices in other areas of the office building to record meetings. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on X: “This alleged attempt by a Saudi national to steal sensitive communications from OpenAI was taken extremely seriously. Theft of intellectual property involving cutting-edge super intelligence technology poses a serious threat to our national security.”