OpenAI engineer charged after listening device found in meeting room

US authorities says Saudi national was arrested and charged for allegedly planting a concealed surveillance device.

OpenAI, a company based in San Francisco, California, is the maker of popular products such as ChatGPT [File: Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters]

A Saudi national who worked as an engineer at the artificial intelligence firm OpenAI has been arrested after a listening device was found in the company’s conference room, according to United States authorities.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Department of Justice said that the employee, identified as a 35-year-old Saudi engineer named Abdulrahman Alfozan, had worked at the company since July 2025.

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Prosecutors accused Alfozan of using the listening device to illegally obtain sensitive information.

Alfozan made his first court appearance on Tuesday and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

“Protecting American [super intelligence] innovation is essential to safeguarding our nation’s economic strength and national security, and the FBI views that mission as one of our highest counterintelligence priorities,” Kash Patel, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said in response to the arrest.

The incident raises concerns about surveillance and underhanded efforts to gain an edge in the AI sector , where companies and countries have angled for an advantage.

A Justice Department complaint said that the device, concealed in toilet paper, was installed around September 28 and discovered on September 30.

Prosecutors explained that video surveillance from OpenAI’s offices showed Alfozan appearing near the executive conference room on multiple dates before the device was discovered, despite having no authority to access the room or participate in its meetings. Such meetings, they added, were highly confidential.

OpenAI security personnel also reportedly found a second listening device in Alfozan’s bag.

“At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code or customer data,” OpenAI said in a social media post. “The employee was terminated.”

The company also said it used its own AI models to identify the person allegedly responsible for planting the device.

“We used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier,” the company said.

“We referred the matter to the FBI, and we’re grateful to the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make an arrest. The FBI’s investigation is ongoing and we will continue to support their work.”

Alfozan has been charged with using or endeavouring to use an electronic, mechanical or other device to intercept oral communications.

美国当局称，一名沙特公民因涉嫌安装隐蔽监控装置而被捕并被起诉。

OpenAI 是一家总部位于加利福尼亚州旧金山的公司，是 ChatGPT 等热门产品的制造商。[图片：Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters]

据美国当局称，一名在人工智能公司 OpenAI 担任工程师的沙特籍人士因在公司会议室发现窃听装置而被捕。

美国司法部周二发表声明称，这名员工是一名35岁的沙特工程师，名叫阿卜杜勒拉赫曼·阿尔福赞，自2025年7月以来一直在该公司工作。

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检察官指控阿尔福赞使用窃听设备非法获取敏感信息。

阿尔福赞于周二首次出庭，面临最高五年监禁和 25 万美元罚款。

“保护美国[超级情报]创新对于维护我们国家的经济实力和国家安全至关重要，联邦调查局将此任务视为我们最重要的反间谍优先事项之一，”联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔在回应此次逮捕时表示。

该事件引发了人们对人工智能领域中监视和暗箱操作以获取优势的担忧，在这个领域，企业和国家都在争夺优势。

司法部的一份投诉称，该装置藏在卫生纸中，于 9 月 28 日左右安装，并于 9 月 30 日被发现。

检方解释说，OpenAI办公室的监控录像显示，在设备被发现之前，阿尔福赞曾多次出现在高管会议室附近，但他既没有权限进入会议室，也没有权限参加会议。检方补充说，这类会议属于高度机密。

据报道，OpenAI 安全人员还在 Alfozan 的包里发现了第二个窃听装置。

OpenAI在社交媒体上发文称：“目前，我们没有迹象表明该员工不当访问或窃取了模型权重、源代码或客户数据。该员工已被解雇。”

该公司还表示，他们利用自己的人工智能模型来识别涉嫌放置该装置的人。

该公司表示：“我们利用我们的模型来了解该装置及其来源，并确定是某位员工在几天前放置的。”

“我们已将此事移交联邦调查局，并感谢迅速采取行动逮捕嫌疑人的特工和检察官。联邦调查局的调查仍在进行中，我们将继续支持他们的工作。”

阿尔福赞被指控使用或试图使用电子、机械或其他设备拦截口头交流。