Saudi OpenAI engineer arrested for planting hidden device to record executive meetings

A Saudi national and OpenAI engineer has been arrested by US federal agents and charged with allegedly installing a hidden audio recording device in an executive conference room at the AI company to capture sensitive discussions about its technology, the US Justice Department said Tuesday.The employee, identified as 35-year-old Saudi national Abdulrahman Alfozan, was arrested on Friday.The complaint did not name the company, but OpenAI confirmed in a separate statement that it had discovered a “sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices”. The company reported the discovery to the FBI and fired the employee.“We used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier. We referred the matter to the FBI, and we’re grateful to the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make an arrest.