OpenAI says Saudi citizen arrested over hidden recording device in office
(Bloomberg) -- An employee at OpenAI was arrested and charged with using a hidden recording device in one of the company’s San Francisco offices, according to statements from the artificial intelligence company and the US Justice Department.
OpenAI announced that one of its employees, Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi citizen, has been arrested for allegedly hiding a recording device in an executive conference room at the company's San Francisco office. The US Justice Department confirmed the arrest on Tuesday, following the discovery of the device on September 30 during a routine security sweep.
The device, a small black object with "Seeed Studio" written on it, was found plugged into a USB port in the back of a television and covered with toilet paper to conceal its presence. Alfozan, who started working at OpenAI in July 2024 and worked on its product team, was fired on the same day as his arrest. The incident has raised concerns about security at top technology companies, especially as nations compete to develop more advanced AI systems.
OpenAI's security team determined that Alfozan had planned to use other recording devices to secretly record meetings in different parts of the office. The company stated that there is no evidence of Alfozan accessing or exfiltrating sensitive data such as model weights, source code, or customer data.
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