A former OpenAI engineer has been arrested in the United States on federal charges after allegedly installing a concealed recording device inside an executive conference room at the artificial intelligence company's San Francisco office.
According to MiddleEastEye, the US Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that federal authorities had arrested Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national and former OpenAI employee, the previous week. He made his initial appearance in federal court on Tuesday.
According to a complaint filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Alfozan had been employed at OpenAI since July 2025.
The company discovered the suspicious device on September 30, connected to a USB port behind a television in an executive meeting room.
Investigators said the thumb-sized device, equipped with a microphone and camera, had been concealed inside toilet paper and allegedly installed around September 28.
The data stored on the device was encrypted and could not be accessed by investigators, according to the complaint.
Federal agents also discovered a similar customised recording device inside Alfozan's personal bag.
The FBI further alleged that the former engineer had used an AI-powered productivity tool to obtain information about the schedules and technical capabilities of meeting rooms at OpenAI's offices.
In a statement published on X, OpenAI said it had used its own artificial intelligence models to help identify the individual responsible for installing the device and trace its origins.
The company also reported uncovering evidence suggesting that the employee intended to install additional recording devices in other sensitive areas of its offices to secretly capture meetings.
"At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data. The employee was terminated," OpenAI stated.
The company emphasised that it had found no evidence that its core AI technology or customer information had been compromised.
The FBI investigation into the incident remains ongoing.
The allegations against Alfozan have not been proven in court.