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OpenAI said the FBI arrested one of its employees after the company found a concealed recording device in a San Francisco office building. The Justice Department identified the employee as 35-year-old Saudi Arabian national Abdulrahman Alfozan, an engineer who joined OpenAI’s product team in July 2025.

OpenAI said a specialist team conducting a sweep for surveillance equipment discovered the device in a conference room on September 30. According to the company, it had been designed to avoid detection, used advanced encryption and could transfer data without drawing attention.

The device had been connected to a USB port on the rear of a television in an OpenAI building, the Justice Department said. OpenAI said it believed Alfozan intended to install additional recording devices in sensitive areas of its offices to capture meetings.

The company said it used its most advanced AI models to assist investigators in analysing copies of data stored on the device and monitoring changes made to it.

Alfozan was dismissed on Friday, the same day as his arrest, OpenAI said. The company said it coordinated the timing of the termination with the FBI to avoid interfering with the investigation. It said it had progressively restricted his access to office space and company systems before suspending access, placing him on leave and recovering company equipment.

“At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code or customer data,” OpenAI said in a statement.

A lawyer for Alfozan, William Pernik, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alfozan appeared in federal court in San Francisco on Tuesday and is due back in court on Monday for a detention hearing, according to the Justice Department.

OpenAI described the protection of its technology as “a matter of national importance.” It said its security programme was designed to guard against threats posed by insiders, cybercriminals and nation-states.

The case comes amid continuing concerns over security at major artificial intelligence laboratories, where advanced models and related research are closely guarded. The rapid development of AI has also intensified debate over the technology’s safety, with some industry leaders arguing that foundational models are advancing too quickly and could pose risks if they fall into the wrong hands.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.