An engineer at the artificial intelligence company OpenAI was arrested after security staff found a hidden recording device plugged into a television inside an executive meeting room. The company said its own AI technology helped investigators identify who planted the device.
According to the US Department of Justice, the device was covered in toilet paper and connected to a TV USB port in late September. Company leaders regularly used the conference room for confidential discussions about strategy and technology. OpenAI said it used its AI models to analyze the device and trace where it came from, concluding that an employee had installed it a few days earlier.
Security cameras also captured the worker, identified by authorities as 35-year-old Abdulrahman Alfozan, near the conference room on multiple days. Footage showed him appearing to look behind the television, even though he did not have permission to enter that room. Security staff later discovered a bag Alfozan left in another room, which held his wallet, his identification card, and a second recording device.
OpenAI fired the engineer and reported the incident to the FBI, leading to Alfozan's arrest on federal charges of attempting to intercept oral communications. The company said it found no evidence that the worker accessed secret AI model weights, source code, or customer information, but called the incident an example of how AI can help defend against insider security threats.