Federal agents have arrested a former OpenAI engineer accused of planting a listening device inside the artificial intelligence company's own offices. Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi national who had worked at OpenAI since July 2025, was charged with using or endeavouring to use a device to intercept oral communications, an offence carrying up to five years in prison and a 250,000-dollar fine if he is convicted.
According to the reporting, OpenAI found a thumb-sized encrypted device on September 30 plugged into a television USB port in a San Francisco executive conference room used for highly confidential matters. The device had allegedly been placed days earlier, and a second similar device was reportedly found in the engineer's personal bag.
OpenAI said the employee was terminated and the matter referred to the FBI, and that it has no indication that model weights, source code or customer data were accessed or taken. The company said its own AI models helped it identify who had planted the device.
The Justice Department has not accused Saudi Arabia itself of spying, and the allegations have not been tested in court. A further federal court hearing was reported for October 19.
