US authorities have arrested an OpenAI engineer of Saudi descent for allegedly planting a covert recording device at the company conference room. The Department of Justice released the identity as 35-year-old Abdulrahman Alfozan, who was arrested in connection with the matter.
The AI company said that after an employee found a device a few days ago, the FBI moved quickly to make an arrest, and that it has terminated the employee. At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data, OpenAI said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on October 14.
We take protecting our technology, data and people seriously, and as a matter of national importance, it added. According to DOJ details, Alfozan was not authorized to access the executive conference room where the covert device was found.
However, the department added, surveillance footage showed him near the conference room on multiple days before the device was discovered. The DOJ said that on October 5, he entered the company's executive room.
On the same day, a suspicious bag linked to Alfozan was also discovered in the OpenAI building. FBI officers discovered inside the bag his wallet, ID and another recording device similar to the one found in the executive conference room.
The DOJ also revealed that the device was wrapped in tissue paper, and its contents were encrypted. The security incident highlights growing concerns around sensitive AI research as OpenAI, Anthropic, and other major AI giants scramble to address safety concerns.
For context, the ChatGPT maker, in a blog post on July 21, 2026, revealed that its models intruded into Hugging Face's system, which hosts AI models and datasets, during model testing. Last week, OpenAI defended its decision to fire three safety researchers, alleging a significant breach of trust, and stating that the researchers violated clear policies on handling sensitive information.