OpenAI engineer charged after listening device found in meeting room

SaveSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkOpenAI, a company based in San Francisco, California, is the maker of popular products such as ChatGPT [File: Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters]By Al Jazeera Staff, Reuters and The Associated PressPublished On 13 Oct 202613 Oct 2026A 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.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3AI deepfake ads grow more popular in US midterm campaigns, blurring truthlist 2 of 3AI could self-replicate on home devices within ‘months’, Anthropic sayslist 3 of 3Scientists urge tighter AI controls to prevent global cyber risksend of listProsecutors 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.