An engineer at OpenAI allegedly planted a covert recording device in a conference room, using an AI chatbot to plan the operation. The device, a Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense, was hidden in toilet paper and inserted into a USB port on the back of a television.

Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi Arabian national, used internal OpenAI tools to inquire about scheduling meetings in the targeted room. He also queried an AI chatbot, possibly associated with his spouse, for technical questions related to setting up the device. The security team at OpenAI discovered the bug on September 30, after a countersurveillance sweep, only to find a second hidden device in Alfozan’s unattended bag.

Alfozan faces up to five years in prison if convicted. No motive for the alleged surveillance has been publicly disclosed, though OpenAI maintains it has no indications that the individual accessed or stole any of its data. The incident has sparked concerns about the potential misuse of AI technologies in corporate espionage and surveillance.

Alfozan joined OpenAI in July 2025 and was fired just before his arrest. He previously worked at a cargo logistics startup and Meta. A LinkedIn profile lists him as a part-time venture partner at RAED Ventures, a Saudi-based venture capital firm.