A Saudi national has been charged by federal prosecutors with secretly planting a recording device in OpenAI's office in California. Abdulrahman Alfozan, an engineer at the AI firm, faces federal charges for using or endeavoring to use an electronic device to intercept oral communications.
OpenAI stated it discovered a "sophisticated recording device" hidden in its San Francisco office and subsequently alerted the FBI. The company indicated it used its AI models to track that an employee had planted the device.
Prosecutors reported that the device, which was wrapped in toilet paper, was found inserted into a USB port on the back of a TV in an executive conference room. OpenAI has confirmed that the employee involved has been fired, adding that there is no indication that source code, model weights, or customer data were inappropriately accessed or taken during the incident.