Saudi national charged over hidden recording device at OpenAI office

Federal prosecutors in the United States have charged a Saudi national, Abdulrahman Alfozan, with secretly planting a recording device inside one of OpenAI's offices in California. Alfozan had been working at the artificial intelligence company as an engineer.

He faces a federal charge related to using or attempting to use an electronic or mechanical device to intercept oral communications.

OpenAI said it found a sophisticated recording device concealed in its San Francisco office and reported the discovery to the FBI. The company said it used its own AI models to establish that an employee was responsible for planting it.

According to prosecutors, the device was wrapped in toilet paper and had been inserted into a USB port on the rear of a television in an executive conference room.

OpenAI, which develops the ChatGPT chatbot, stated there is no evidence that source code, model weights or customer data were improperly accessed or removed as a result of the incident. The employee involved has since been dismissed from the company.

Court filings allege that Alfozan hid the recording device in the executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive conversations. FBI Director Kash Patel said the apparent intention behind the act was to obtain information about the company's AI product.