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A Saudi man working as an OpenAI engineer has been arrested for allegedly planting a listening device in the company's San Francisco office. Abdulrahman Alfozan was charged with using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications, according to the Justice Department. The arrest took place on Friday, and the announcement was made on Tuesday.
FBI Director Kash Patel stated that Alfozan aimed to record sensitive information about OpenAI's technology. The device was discovered on September 30, plugged into the back of a television in a room used for confidential discussions involving proprietary research. If convicted, Alfozan could face up to five years in prison.
This incident is part of a broader trend of tech-related espionage cases. For example, a former Google engineer was recently arrested for allegedly stealing trade secrets related to AI development. The engineer, Linwei Ding, was accused of using Apple's Notes app to extract confidential information from Google, as reported by SFGATE.