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FBI says an OpenAI engineer used his wife’s ChatGPT account to plant a secret recording device
Fortune • • business
Key Points:
- Abdulrahman Alfozan, an OpenAI engineer and Saudi national, was arrested for allegedly using AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, to design and deploy a concealed audio recording device in a secure OpenAI conference room.
- The device, hidden behind a TV, was intended to capture confidential meetings involving proprietary research and strategic discussions; however, the recorded data was encrypted and could not be decrypted by OpenAI.
- Alfozan did not have authorized access to the room but was recorded on CCTV multiple times near the location, and a second recording device was found in his possession after he left a bag in a company printer room.
- Prosecutors charged Alfozan under the federal Wiretap Act, facing up to five years in prison, and noted his planned flight to Saudi Arabia just days after the device was discovered; no charges of trade-secret theft or economic espionage have been filed yet.
- The case has drawn attention from national security officials, with the FBI and intelligence community emphasizing protection of American intellectual property, while OpenAI confirmed no evidence of data theft from its models or customers.
