A Saudi national has been charged with secretly placing a recording device inside one of OpenAI’s offices in California, according to federal prosecutors.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, an engineer at the AI company, faces a federal charge of using or endeavouring to use an electronic, mechanical or other device to intercept oral communications.
OpenAI said it found a “sophisticated recording device” concealed in its San Francisco office and contacted the FBI, adding that its own AI models were used to establish that an employee had put it there.
Prosecutors say the device had been inserted into a USB port on the rear of a television in an executive conference room and was wrapped in toilet paper.
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.
Patel said the alleged purpose was to obtain information about the company’s AI product.
Alfozan has worked as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025, prosecutors say.
OpenAI employees came across the device on 30 September, two days after prosecutors say it was installed, and it was encrypted.
OpenAI said its AI models were used “to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier”.
The company, which makes the chatbot ChatGPT, said it has no indication that source code, model weights or customer data were inappropriately accessed or taken in the incident. The employee has been dismissed, OpenAI said.
According to the FBI, the suspect used a “productivity tool” and a “chatbot” to look into sensitive locations at OpenAI and ways to hide audio equipment.
Prosecutors allege the chatbot prompts he searched covered “building, customizing, installing, audio recording, testing, obfuscating, and remote accessing a device”.
He is also accused of asking the chatbot about “‘build[ing] a continuous audio recorder,’ ‘customiz[ing] Wi-Fi . . . connectivity,’ ‘improv[ing] audio and live listening,’ and ‘encrypt[ing] the SD card'”.
Prosecutors say he returned to the room to inspect the device on 5 October, and that CCTV footage was used to link him to the scene.
That same day, prosecutors say, Alfozan left a bag unattended in another part of the building. A security team for OpenAI opened it and found his wallet and ID along with a second recording device resembling the one discovered in the conference room, according to prosecutors.
Alfozan appeared in court on Tuesday. It is unclear whether he has legal representation.
A conviction carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 (£187,000).
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