OpenAI: Engineer is said to have installed listening devices on tour – arrested

He was arrested and faced up to five years in prison if convicted. There is also a fine of over $250,000. According to the information, A. was arrested on October 9th and appeared before a federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday.

According to court documents, the device was discovered on September 30. It was stuck in a TV's USB port and hidden in toilet paper. It is said to have been placed there two days earlier. The contents of the device were encrypted. A similar device was found in a bag that A. had left behind on the company premises.

Suspicious requests to build recording equipment

According to investigators, highly confidential topics were regularly discussed in the conference room in San Francisco, including research projects, product plans, business relationships and contacts with authorities. A. therefore had no access authorization, but was seen several times in the vicinity of the room on surveillance videos. According to the court documents, requests to build a recording device as well as real-time listening and encryption had previously been made via an AI assistant account assigned to his wife.

OpenAI said the device was designed to be difficult to detect. The company reported the case to the FBI and fired the engineer, who had been employed since July 2025, on the day of his arrest. "So far we have no indication that this person has accessed model parameters, source code or customer data without authorization," said a company spokesman.

A. is scheduled to appear in court again on October 19th. A decision will then be made about his further imprisonment. According to the information, A. has had a permanent residence permit since 2020. In the past he is also said to have worked for Meta and Microsoft.

“For AI companies, humans are just an obstacle”: OpenAI claims to have solved hundreds of large math puzzles with AI. Fields Prize winner Peter Scholze is one of the best in this field - and is afraid of a life in which machines take control. The SPIEGEL interview can be found here.