OpenAI engineer charged with allegedly hiding recording device in conference room

Saudi national named Abdulrahman Alfozan. Pic/AFP

An engineer at OpenAI has been charged with secretly installing a recording device inside a conference room in what officials said Tuesday was an effort to capture sensitive conversations about the company's technology.

The employee, identified as a 35-year-old Saudi national named Abdulrahman Alfozan, was arrested on Friday, a week after the ChatGPT maker discovered an audio recording device hidden inside a company conference room, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco.