OpenAI says employee caught planting listening device

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, said Tuesday one of its employees was arrested after a "sophisticated recording device" was found in one of its San Francisco offices.

A 35-year-old Saudi national working as an engineer was arrested on Friday, a week after the device was discovered in a conference room, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco.

After the device was discovered, the company reported the finding to the FBI and fired the employee. A federal investigation is ongoing. 

The suspect, who appeared in court on Tuesday, has been charged with using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications.

The criminal complaint did not specify what the suspect might have wanted to do with the recordings. It did add, however, that the suspect used a tool to inquire about the company's building addresses, meeting rooms, meeting-room capacities and calendars.

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How was the device found?

OpenAI said the device was discovered a few days after it was allegedly planted by the suspect.

"We used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier," a spokesperson for the artificial intelligence company told the Associated Press.

"At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data," the spokesperson added.

According to the US Justice Department, the suspect wrapped a USB device in toilet paper and hid it inside a television located in an "executive conference room." 

He was seen on camera near the room several times despite not having authorization to sit in meetings there. After this was noticed, another camera was installed in the room that captured the suspect on film checking on the stashed device. 

Edited by: Zac Crellin

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