Suspicious Tissue Bundle Behind TV in Executive Meeting Room... What Happened to the Employee Who Installed It

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on the 13th (local time) that it has arrested and indicted Abdulrahman Alfozan (35), a Saudi national and OpenAI engineer.

According to the Department of Justice, OpenAI discovered a recording device plugged into the USB port on the back of a TV in an executive meeting room at one of its San Francisco offices on September 30.

According to the indictment, the device was hidden wrapped in tissue paper and was installed around the 28th of the same month.

Alfozan, who joined the company in July of last year and worked on the product team, was arrested nine days after the device was discovered and is currently detained by authorities.

He is currently fired.

He has been charged with wiretapping oral communications using an electronic device, and if convicted, he could face up to five years in prison.

OpenAI stated in a post on X that it analyzed the device using its own AI model to identify the installer, explaining that there is currently no evidence that this individual inappropriately accessed or leaked model weights, source code, or customer data.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that Alfozan is accused of hiding a secret recording device inside the executive meeting room to covertly capture sensitive conversations regarding the company's superintelligence technology.

OpenAI has recently experienced a series of incidents surrounding security and internal information management.

OpenAI terminated contracts with three researchers from its safety team on the 9th over suspicions that they leaked company confidential information to a third-party AI safety organization.

The fired researchers protested in a letter that the company prioritized corporate profits over safety, but OpenAI stated that the dismissal was unrelated to raising safety concerns.

Previously in April, a man from Texas was indicted on charges of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the home of CEO Sam Altman and attempting to set fire to the headquarters.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.