Who is Abdulrahman Alfozan? OpenAI engineer arrested by FBI for planting recording device in conference room
OpenAI engineer Abdulrahman Alfozan was arrested after a hidden, encrypted recording device was found in an executive conference room at the company’s San Francisco office. The DOJ said he was not authorised to access the room.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national and former engineer at AI company OpenAI, has been arrested by the FBI for allegedly planting a recording device in an executive conference room. OpenAI discovered the hidden device on September 30, wrapped in toilet paper and plugged into a USB port behind a television. The device was believed to have been placed there around September 28.
Alfozan was not authorized to access the conference room where the device was found, according to surveillance footage showing him near the room multiple times before it was discovered. FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that Alfozan allegedly concealed a covert recording device to secretly capture sensitive communications about the company's superintelligence technology.
OpenAI terminated Alfozan's employment following the arrest, stating that it had no indications of inappropriate access or exfiltration of model weights, source code, or customer data.
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