A Saudi national has been federally charged with secretly installing a recording device inside an OpenAI office in California, prosecutors announced.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, an engineer at the artificial intelligence firm, faces a federal charge of using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications.
OpenAI reported discovering a “sophisticated recording device” concealed in its San Francisco office and notified the FBI. The company stated it utilized its own AI models to trace the device back to a specific employee.
According to prosecutors, the device—wrapped in toilet paper—was found inserted into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room.
OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, said there is no evidence that source code, model weights, or customer data were compromised. The employee has been terminated.
“Alfozan allegedly concealed a covert recording device inside his employer’s executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive communications,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.
Patel added that the alleged objective was to obtain information regarding the company’s AI products.
Prosecutors say Alfozan had been employed as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025.
OpenAI employees discovered the device on September 30, two days after it was allegedly installed. The device was encrypted, according to prosecutors.
OpenAI said its AI models were used “to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier.”
The FBI alleges the suspect used a “productivity tool” and a “chatbot” to research sensitive locations within OpenAI and methods for covertly placing audio equipment.
Prosecutors allege his chatbot search history included prompts regarding “building, customizing, installing, audio recording, testing, obfuscating, and remote accessing a device.”
He is also accused of querying the chatbot on topics such as “building a continuous audio recorder,” “customizing Wi-Fi connectivity,” “improving audio and live listening,” and “encrypting the SD card.”