Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old engineer at OpenAI, was arrested on October 9. Authorities allege he hid an audio recording device inside a conference room used by the company's leadership for confidential discussions. The device was found wrapped in toilet paper within a television USB port. A second recording device was discovered in his possession.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Alfozan utilized a chatbot account linked to his wife to assist in building the surveillance hardware. Between September 24 and 30, the account was used to generate prompts regarding continuous audio recording, Wi-Fi connectivity, and SD card encryption. The prompts included specific technical details, such as the MAC address of the recovered device.
OpenAI confirmed that the employee has been terminated. The company stated there is no evidence that the individual accessed or exfiltrated model weights, source code, or customer data. If convicted, Alfozan faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250 000.
The incident occurs amid deepening ties between OpenAI and Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Recent initiatives include the Stargate UAE project, which aims to provide free access to ChatGPT. A deal with the Trump administration now permits the export of up to 500 000 high-performance AI chips annually to the region.
