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Saudi citizen plants listening device in OpenAI offices in San Francisco
Abdulrahman Al-Fawzan, a Saudi engineer at the company since July 2024, has been accused by the FBI of placing a hidden audio recorder in an executive conference room.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has charged Abdulrahman Al-Fawzan, 35, a Saudi citizen who worked as an engineer at OpenAI, with planting a hidden audio recording device inside the company's San Francisco offices.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Al-Fawzan joined OpenAI in July 2024 and has been a lawful permanent resident of the United States since September 2020. A criminal complaint filed by the FBI stated that the company discovered the device on September 30, concealed behind a television in an executive conference room and connected to a USB port.
Following the discovery, the company installed a camera in the same room and recorded Al-Fawzan entering it the following week and inspecting the area behind the television where the device had been planted, according to the complaint.
Al-Fawzan was arrested and turned over to federal authorities. The case reveals escalating security concerns surrounding sensitive artificial intelligence research amid accelerating competition between companies and governments over strategically significant technologies.
Sources — how we know this
- PrimaryAl Jazeera English