OpenAI fires Saudi employee accused of planting a bug in its executive conference room

OpenAI Group PBC called in the Federal Bureau of Investigation to come and arrest one of its employees after a “sophisticated recording device” was discovered hidden within the artificial intelligence company’s executive conference room. Abdulrahman Alfozan (pictured in a CCTV image), a 35-year-old Saudi Arabian national, was arrested on Friday and appeared in a federal court earlier today, where he was charged with illegally intercepting oral communications, according to a news release by the Department of Justice. The device was discovered by OpenAI on Sept. 30. It had been inserted into a USB port on the back of a television inside the executive conference room located at one of the company’s offices in San Francisco.