Saudi employee arrested for allegedly hiding bug in OpenAI office
SAN FRANCISCO: A Saudi employee of OpenAI was arrested after an investigation found that they had secretly planted a recording device in one of its San Francisco offices, the tech company and federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.
A Saudi national engineer for OpenAI was arrested on October 9 after a recording device was discovered hidden in one of the company's San Francisco offices, according to federal prosecutors.
Working at OpenAI since July 2025, Abdulrahman Alfozan allegedly concealed the device inside a television set in an executive conference room by wrapping it in toilet paper. Surveillance footage showed the 35-year-old accessing the conference room frequently despite not being authorized to do so.
Alfozan utilized a productivity tool to research OpenAI's office locations, meeting rooms, schedules and personnel, and his spouse's chatbot account contained queries about remote audio recording and encrypted SD cards, according to prosecutors' statement.
"Investigations like these highlight the importance of securing our nation's cutting-edge intellectual property against foreign threats," stated Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton. The case has unfolded in the context of a global competition to lead the artificial intelligence (AI) market. Saudi Arabia's state-backed AI firm Humain recently invested $3 billion in Elon Musk's xAI, which acquired OpenAI's AI division in February and later partnered with Humain on a massive data center project in the country.
Written by urgent.news from New Straits Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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