A Saudi national employed as an engineer at OpenAI has been charged with planting a sophisticated recording device in an executive conference room at the company’s San Francisco office. Abdulrahman Alfozan allegedly installed the encrypted device, concealed in a USB port and wrapped in toilet paper, on September 28th, with the intent of capturing sensitive information about OpenAI’s AI product. OpenAI discovered the device on September 30th and used its own AI models to trace it back to Alfozan, who was subsequently fired.
Prosecutors allege Alfozan researched how to build, customize, install, and remotely access the recording device, utilizing a “productivity tool” and a “chatbot” to identify sensitive locations within OpenAI. A second, similar recording device was found in a bag Alfozan left unattended in the building on October 5th, along with his wallet and ID. CCTV footage also links him to the conference room on that date. OpenAI stated it has found no evidence of inappropriate access to source code, model weights, or customer data.
Alfozan faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. The investigation revealed he had been working at OpenAI since July 2025. While OpenAI used AI to identify the perpetrator, the full extent of the information captured by the device remains unclear.
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