Bug in executive conference room: FBI arrests OpenAI engineer
A recording device was hidden behind a television at OpenAI. An employee is accused of planting it – he has been charged and fired. The company says it has no indication any data was taken.
Archive image · Photo: Coolcaesar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
The FBI has arrested an OpenAI engineer accused of hiding a listening device in an executive conference room. The US Justice Department announced the case on Tuesday. According to the charges, he is accused of attempting to intercept oral communications with an electronic device; if convicted, he faces up to five years in prison. A detention hearing is scheduled for 19 October. His lawyer stressed that his client is presumed innocent.
According to CBS News and Fortune, employees discovered the device on 30 September – plugged into the USB port on the back of a television and hidden in toilet paper. According to the FBI, the room was often used to discuss confidential technical, commercial and strategic matters. On 5 October the man allegedly entered the room again and looked behind the television; security then found another recording device in his bag.
OpenAI called in the FBI and has fired the employee. The company said it had no indications that he improperly accessed or exfiltrated model weights, source code or customer data. FBI Director Kash Patel called protecting American superintelligence one of the bureau's highest counterintelligence priorities; the investigation is ongoing.