\n
A Saudi national has been charged with secretly planting a recording device in one of OpenAI’s offices in California, federal prosecutors announced. <\/b><\/p>\n
Abdulrahman Alfozan, who worked at the AI firm as an engineer, was charged federally with using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications.<\/p>\n
OpenAI said it had discovered a “sophisticated recording device” hidden in their San Francisco office and alerted the FBI. The company said it used its AI models to track that it had been planted by an employee.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors say the device, wrapped in toilet paper, was found inserted in a USB port on the back of a TV in an executive conference room. <\/p>\n
OpenAI, the maker of the popular chatbot ChatGPT, said that it has no indication that source code, model weights or customer data were inappropriately accessed or taken in the incident. It said the employee has been fired. <\/p>\n
According to the complaint, Alfozan “allegedly concealed a covert recording device inside his employer’s executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive communications,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Patel said that the alleged goal was to capture information about the company’s AI product.<\/p>\n
Alfozan has been working as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025, prosecutors say.<\/p>\n
On 30 September, OpenAI employees discovered the device – two days after prosecutors say it had been installed. The device was encrypted, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
OpenAI said they were able to use their AI models “to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier”. <\/p>\n
According to the FBI, the suspect used a “productivity tool” and a “chatbot” to research sensitive locations at OpenAI and how to secretly place audio equipment.<\/p>\n
Chatbot prompts that he is alleged to have searched include “building, customizing, installing, audio recording, testing, obfuscating, and remote accessing a device”, prosecutors allege. <\/p>\n
He is also accused of using the chatbot to ask about “‘build[ing] a continuous audio recorder,’ ‘customiz[ing] Wi-Fi . . . connectivity,’ ‘improv[ing] audio and live listening,’ and ‘encrypt[ing] the SD card'”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Saudi national has been charged with secretly planting a recording device in one of OpenAI’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1676,1964,12684,888,5096,12176,12685,219],"class_list":["post-103131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","tag-charged","tag-device","tag-employee","tag-office","tag-openai","tag-planting","tag-recording","tag-saudi"],"yoast_head":"\n
Saudi employee charged with planting recording device at OpenAI office - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saudi employee charged with planting recording device at OpenAI office\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-13T21:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/83811950-c790-11f1-a64c-550be9e3c66b.avif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Saudi employee charged with planting recording device at OpenAI office - Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Saudi employee charged with planting recording device at OpenAI office","og_description":"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss","og_site_name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","article_published_time":"2026-10-13T21:42:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/83811950-c790-11f1-a64c-550be9e3c66b.avif","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"gulftimes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_site":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"gulftimes","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=103131"},"author":{"name":"gulftimes","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977"},"headline":"Saudi employee charged with planting recording device at OpenAI office","datePublished":"2026-10-13T21:42:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=103131"},"wordCount":365,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/83811950-c790-11f1-a64c-550be9e3c66b.avif","keywords":["charged","device","employee","Office","OpenAI","planting","recording","Saudi"],"articleSection":["Top Stories"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=103131","url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss","name":"Saudi employee charged with planting recording device at OpenAI office - Gulf Times | News by the minute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/83811950-c790-11f1-a64c-550be9e3c66b.avif","datePublished":"2026-10-13T21:42:00+00:00","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/83811950-c790-11f1-a64c-550be9e3c66b.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/83811950-c790-11f1-a64c-550be9e3c66b.avif","width":1200,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwg5jq4vlddzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Saudi employee charged with planting recording device at OpenAI office"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Largest News Aggregator in the Gulf","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Gulf News Aggregator","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization","name":"Gulf Times","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Gulf Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","https:\/\/x.com\/Gulftimesuae"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977","name":"gulftimes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"gulftimes"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae"],"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/103132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}