The San Francisco Standard reported that federal prosecutors said on Tuesday that Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi national, is suspected of hiding an audio recorder in an executive conference room at OpenAI's San Francisco office. He was arrested Friday and charged with intercepting spoken talks with a device, or trying to. OpenAI staff found the recorder on Sept. 30, plugged into a USB port behind a television and hidden in toilet paper, according to the complaint. OpenAI said it fired him Friday, after limiting his access to systems and spaces from Sept. 30.
The charges are allegations, and the sources report no trial. Prosecutors said the first device's contents were encrypted. The sources do not say whether anything was recorded, and they give no motive. OpenAI said it has evidence he planned to place more recorders in sensitive spaces. It also said it has found nothing showing he reached or copied model weights, source code or customer data. A detention hearing is set for Oct. 19.
OpenAI called the device built to avoid detection, with encryption and a way to move data out unseen. Such a device sits outside network controls. Prosecutors said he earlier asked a work tool about meeting rooms and calendars. Leaders might ask: does anyone sweep our meeting rooms for devices, and who controls room access and calendars?