The U.S. Department of Justice announced on the 13th that Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi engineer at OpenAI, was arrested and charged with "unlawful interception of oral communications" for secretly installing a hidden recording device in a high-level executive meeting room in San Francisco. The 35-year-old engineer was arrested on the 9th of this month and has been working at OpenAI since July 2025; if convicted, he could face up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 (approximately RMB 1.676 million).
According to the disclosure, OpenAI's security team discovered the device in an executive meeting room of an office building on September 30th. It was hidden inside a roll of toilet paper and plugged into the USB port at the back of the meeting room's television. It was installed around September 28th, and it contained encrypted data. This meeting room was usually used for discussing highly confidential matters such as proprietary research, product planning, technical capabilities, business relationships, and government collaborations. Surveillance showed that Alfozan had been seen frequently nearby but had no permission to attend those meetings.
Using AI tools to scout, using spouse's account for eavesdropping
The indictment revealed a more elaborate plan: Alfozan also used a productivity tool to search for the company's office locations, meeting rooms, executive positions, and meeting schedules. His spouse's chatbot account was used to inquire about continuous recording, Wi-Fi modification, real-time eavesdropping, and encrypted SD cards. The Department of Justice stated that the account submitted prompts related to the customized header and unique MAC address of the involved device on September 27th and 28th. In a video from October 5th, he returned to the meeting room and checked behind the television.
OpenAI has terminated the employee and referred the case to the FBI. The company also stated that there is currently no evidence that he improperly accessed or leaked model weights, source code, or customer data. Although the unauthorized recording has not been confirmed to have caused the loss of core assets, the fact that an engineer could plant a listening device in the core area of a major company is already alarming.
