Feds: OpenAI Engineer Planted Bug in Conference Room

An engineer at OpenAI has been charged with secretly installing a recording device inside a conference room in what officials said Tuesday was an effort to capture sensitive conversations about the company's technology. The employee, identified as a 35-year-old Saudi national named Abdulrahman Alfozan, was arrested Friday, a week after the ChatGPT maker discovered an audio recording device hidden in the conference room, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco.

• The complaint did not identify the company, but the company confirmed in a separate statement that it had discovered a "sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices," reported the finding to the FBI, and fired the employee, the AP reports. The recording device was found September 30 concealed in toilet paper and inserted into a USB port on the back of a television in the conference room, according to the complaint.

OpenAI used its AI models "to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier. We referred the matter to the FBI," an OpenAI spokesperson said. "At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data. The employee was terminated," the statement said. The complaint does not detail what Alfozan might have wanted to do with any captured communications. According to the complaint, Alfozan had worked for OpenAI since July 2025.

Prosecutors say the suspect also used AI, asking a chatbot about sensitive locations at OpenAI and seeking advice on secretly placing audio equipment, the BBC reports. His alleged search prompts included "building, customizing, installing, audio recording, testing, obfuscating, and remote accessing a device." Before his arrest last week, the complaint says, Alfozan left an unattended bag in a different room in the building that included his wallet, identification, and another recording device.

• Alfozan made his first court appearance Tuesday on a charge of using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. If convicted, he could face a maximum of 5 years in prison, plus a $250,000 fine.