OpenAI engineer charged after listening device found in meeting room - Al Jazeera

US authorities says Saudi national was arrested and charged for allegedly planting a concealed surveillance device. OpenAI, a company based in San Francisco, California, is the maker of popular products such as ChatGPT [File: Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters]A Saudi national who worked as an engineer at the artificial intelligence firm OpenAI has been arrested after a listening device was found in the company’s conference room, according to United States authorities. In a statement on Tuesday, the Department of Justice said that the employee, identified as a 35-year-old Saudi engineer named Abdulrahman Alfozan, had worked at the company since July 2025. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3AI deepfake ads grow more popular in US midterm campaigns, blurring truthlist 2 of 3AI could self-replicate on home devices within ‘months’, Anthropic sayslist 3 of 3Scientists urge tighter AI controls to prevent global cyber risksend of listProsecutors accused Alfozan of using the listening device to illegally obtain sensitive information. Alfozan made his first court appearance on Tuesday and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.