Saudi National Charged in OpenAI Office Surveillance Incident
An engineer at the AI firm is accused of planting a sophisticated recording device in a San Francisco conference room.
A Saudi national working as an engineer at OpenAI has been charged with secretly planting a recording device in the company's San Francisco office, federal prosecutors announced.
Abdulrahman Alfozan was charged with using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. OpenAI reported discovering the "sophisticated recording device" and alerted the FBI. The company stated that its AI models helped track that an employee had planted the device.
According to prosecutors, the device was found concealed in a USB port behind a television in an executive conference room. The device was reportedly wrapped in toilet paper.
OpenAI has indicated that there is no evidence suggesting that source code, model weights, or customer data were improperly accessed or removed during the incident. The employee has since been terminated by the company.