This is the $24 gizmo the FBI says was used to bug OpenAI's offices
The recording device the FBI says was used to bug an OpenAI conference room isn't exactly state-of-the-art.
The FBI alleges that a former employee at OpenAI utilized a $24 recording device to surreptitiously bug the company's San Francisco offices. This basic microcontroller, available for purchase on Amazon, boasts features such as speech-activated recording software and encryption technology, ostensibly designed to obfuscate the content of the recorded conversations.
The suspect, Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national, was apprehended the day after his account on a chatbot was detected attempting to optimize the device's recording capabilities. The device in question is the Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense, a compact computer equipped with a built-in microphone and Bluetooth connector, commonly utilized in home automation systems and tech projects.
Despite its seemingly rudimentary design, it can record audio and save it to a memory card, akin to a conventional digital voice recorder. The FBI has charged Alfozan with using or attempting to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications.
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