OpenAI employee charged with hiding a recording device in an executive meeting room
Federal prosecutors say a product team member planted the device behind a television at OpenAI's San Francisco office. The FBI calls protecting the company's technology a counter-intelligence priority.
Key points
- Prosecutors have charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national on OpenAI's product team.
- The device was found plugged into the back of a television in an executive conference room.
- OpenAI says it has no sign of model weights or customer data being taken.
A member of OpenAI’s product team has been charged in the United States with secretly planting a recording device in an executive conference room at the company’s San Francisco office.
Federal prosecutors named the employee as Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national who joined OpenAI in July 2025. He is charged with using an electronic device to intercept oral communications, which means recording people’s conversations without their permission. The offence carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.
OpenAI fired Alfozan and he was arrested on 9 October, about a week after the company found the device and alerted the FBI. The case was made public on Tuesday.
Behind the television
According to prosecutors, the device had been pushed into a USB port on the back of a television in the conference room. A camera that OpenAI then put in place allegedly caught Alfozan looking behind the screen where it had been hidden.
OpenAI said the device contained “advanced encryption, audio monitoring capabilities, and a mechanism for transferring data designed to evade monitoring.” The company said it had used its own AI models to examine it. It has not said what, if anything, was recorded.
In a post on X, the company said: “At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data.” Model weights are the trained parameters at the heart of an AI system and among the most closely guarded assets in the industry.
‘Highest’ priority for the FBI
FBI Director Kash Patel said the aim of the scheme was to “capture sensitive communications about the company’s super intelligence technology.”
“Protecting American SI innovation is essential to safeguarding our nation’s economic strength and national security,” Patel said, adding that “the FBI views that mission as one of our highest counterintelligence priorities.”
Beyond Patel’s remarks, nothing has been made public about who the recordings were meant for. Alfozan and his lawyer could not be reached for comment.
A company under pressure
The arrest adds to a run of security and legal headaches for the ChatGPT maker. On the same day, a federal judge in California ordered OpenAI to hand over interview records for former Apple employees in a trade secrets lawsuit brought by Apple, which accuses ex-staff of taking confidential material to their new employer. OpenAI is building a consumer hardware device of its own.