FBI arrests an employee suspected of installing a wiretapping device in an OpenAI meeting room

The FBI arrested OpenAI employee Abdulrahman Alfozan on October 9; he is accused of secretly installing a recording device behind a television in a meeting room at the San Francisco office. OpenAI's security team discovered the device during a routine inspection on September 30 and notified the FBI. The company said there is currently no indication that model weights, source code, or customer data were improperly accessed or leaked. Alfozan is a Saudi citizen who previously worked at Meta for five years; three days before the incident, he had planned a one-way flight with his family to Saudi Arabia via Istanbul. If convicted, he faces up to 5 years in prison.