Employee arrested after listening device found in OpenAI conference room, FBI and the company say

Ottumwa Courier

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AP

An engineer at OpenAI has been charged with secretly installing a recording device inside a conference room in what officials say was an effort to capture sensitive conversations about the company’s technology

  • By ERIC TUCKER - Associated Press
Open AI Conference

Attendees gather at the OpenAI DevDay 2026 conference, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in San Francisco.

Jeff Chiu - AP
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WASHINGTON (AP) — An engineer at OpenAI has been charged with secretly installing a recording device inside a conference room in what officials said Tuesday was an effort to capture sensitive conversations about the company's technology.

The employee, identified as a 35-year-old Saudi national named Abdulrahman Alfozan, was arrested Friday, a week after the ChatGPT maker discovered an audio recording device hidden in the conference room, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco.

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