OpenAI employee arrested over alleged recording device

SAN FRANCISCO:

A Saudi employee of OpenAI has been arrested in the United States for allegedly planting a recording device in the artificial intelligence company's San Francisco office, federal prosecutors and the firm said on Tuesday.

The US Justice Department said Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, an engineer who joined OpenAI in July 2025, was arrested on October 9. He allegedly wrapped a USB device in toilet paper and inserted it into a television in an executive conference room.

OpenAI's security team discovered the device late last month and referred the matter to the FBI. Prosecutors said Alfozan had also used a productivity tool to search for information about office buildings, meeting rooms, calendars and employees' locations.

A second device was reportedly found during a search of an unattended bag belonging to him. Investigators also cited queries about remote audio recording and memory-card encryption on a chatbot account linked to his spouse.

OpenAI said it had no indication that Alfozan had improperly accessed or extracted its AI model weights, source code or customer data. AFP