OpenAI said it has alerted the FBI after discovering that an employee allegedly planted a hidden recording device in one of the AI maker’s office executive conference rooms.
The employee, named by federal prosecutors as Saudi national Abdulrahman Alfozan, was fired and arrested on October 9, about a week after OpenAI discovered the surveillance device.
The company said in a post on X that it used its internal AI models to understand the “sophisticated” device. OpenAI told TechCrunch that the device contained “advanced encryption, audio monitoring capabilities, and a mechanism for transferring data designed to evade monitoring,” though it is unclear to what degree this device is technically distinct from other recording devices.
“At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data,” said OpenAI in its post on X.
OpenAI’s spokesperson, Nate Evans, confirmed that the employee started with the AI model maker in July 2025 and worked on the product team.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California said Alfozan was charged with using an electronic device to intercept oral communications — effectively accusing him of covertly recording people’s voice audio without their permission. Prosecutors said OpenAI caught the device after it was inserted into a USB port on the back of a television in OpenAI’s San Francisco office.
Per the prosecutors, Alfozan was caught looking behind the television where the recording device was placed, and where OpenAI had placed a camera that allegedly caught the employee.
It’s not clear exactly for what purpose the recording device was used, but FBI director Kash Patel said the scheme was to “capture sensitive communications about the company’s super intelligence technology.”
Neither Alfozan nor his attorney could be immediately reached for comment. He faces five years in prison if convicted.
When reached, a spokesperson for the FBI reiterated a statement made by Patel.
“Protecting American SI innovation is essential to safeguarding our nation’s economic strength and national security, and the FBI views that mission as one of our highest counterintelligence priorities,” Patel said.
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Zack Whittaker is the security editor at TechCrunch. He also authors the weekly cybersecurity newsletter, this week in security.
He can be reached via encrypted message at zackwhittaker.1337 on Signal. You can also contact him by email, or to verify outreach, at [email protected].
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