FBI says an OpenAI engineer used his wife’s AI chatbot to figure out how to plant a secret recording device at the office
FBI says Abdulrahman Alfozan, his wife and a third unnamed family member also had one-way tickets to Saudi Arabia via Istanbul.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national and OpenAI engineer, was arrested on October 9 after hiding a secret recording device behind a television in an executive conference room at one of OpenAI's San Francisco buildings. According to court documents, Alfozan prompted his wife's AI chatbot, linked to his OpenAI engineer account, to build the device between September 24 and 30.
The device, a Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense with a microphone and microSD storage, was found wrapped in toilet paper behind the TV on September 30. Alfozan had no access to the conference room, and OpenAI had no cameras in the room at the time. The FBI's affidavit states that Alfozan chose the room due to its frequent discussions of confidential information.
Alfozan faces one count under the federal Wiretap Act, which carries up to five years in prison. He was arrested on October 9, three days before his planned flight from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia. OpenAI maintains that Alfozan did not take any proprietary information.
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