The FBI has arrested Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national and OpenAI engineer, for allegedly planting an encrypted audio-video recording device inside an executive conference room at OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters. OpenAI revealed that it deployed its internal AI models to analyze the hardware and trace its origin, identifying Alfozan as the primary suspect before handing evidence over to federal law enforcement.
OpenAI security personnel discovered the hidden recording apparatus on September 30 during a routine countersurveillance sweep. Alfozan installed the device around September 28 to capture confidential communications regarding proprietary AI technology, according to the US Department of Justice. The thumb-sized device, wrapped in toilet paper and plugged into a USB port behind a conference room television, contained a microphone, a detachable camera sensor, and encrypted microSD storage. The targeted room was regularly used for high-level executive meetings and discussions with external partners.
