Ann OpenAI The employee was arrested after a “sophisticated recording device” was discovered in a boardroom, according to a post from the Department of Justice and the company.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a citizen of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was arrested on October 9 in connection with the case, the Ministry of Justice announced in a statement on Tuesday.
The company said an employee had installed the device days before the discovery, and that federal agents “moved quickly to make the arrest.” The employee was fired.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that Alfozan “is suspected of concealing a secret recording device in his employer’s boardroom to covertly record classified communications related to the company’s super-intelligence technology.”
Recording device installed at OpenAI’s office.
Provided by: U.S. Department of Justice
“At this time, there is no evidence that this individual inappropriately accessed or compromised model weights, source code, or customer data,” OpenAI said in a post. “We take the protection of technology, data and people seriously as national priorities.”
The Justice Department said Alfozan was not authorized to enter the executive conference room where the devices were found. Police said the video showed him near a conference room several days before the device was discovered. He entered the room on October 5, the Justice Department said.
The Justice Department said a bag that belonged to Alfozan was also found inside the OpenAI building around October 5. Inside the bag, the security guard found his wallet, identification, and another recording device similar to the one in the executive room.
The ministry said a chatbot account associated with Alfozan’s spouse “shared multiple identifiers and attributes with Alfozan’s own chatbot account” and was used to obtain continuous audio recordings and information about Wi-Fi. The Justice Department said the prompts were filed in connection with “device construction, customization, installation, audio recording, testing, obfuscation, and remote access.”
The device was hidden inside toilet paper and its contents were encrypted, the Justice Department said.
Abdulrahman Alfozan is pictured checking a recording device at OpenAI’s offices in San Francisco, California.
Provided by: U.S. Department of Justice
This security incident was caused by the ChatGPT creator and its competitors, including: human Other big tech companies are facing increased scrutiny of their safety protocols following a series of cyber incidents in which autonomous agents escaped from test environments and infiltrated external systems.
OpenAI last week defended its decision to fire three safety researchers, alleging “gross breach of trust” and saying the researchers “violated clear policies regarding the handling of classified information.”
In a letter to OpenAI executives, Jasmine Wang, Tomek Colback, and Mikita Varesni expressed safety concerns, saying that communications about their departures “lead former colleagues to fear statements and activities that were an integral part of working at OpenAI until last week.”
