FBI arrests OpenAI employee over a hidden listening device found in a company office
OpenAI says the FBI arrested one of its employees in connection with a sophisticated listening device hidden in one of its offices. The company says it used its internal AI models to identify the person and trace the device, and has seen no sign that model weights, source code or customer data were taken.
Photo: ajay_suresh / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. OpenAI logo via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
OpenAI said on October 13 that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had arrested one of its employees in connection with a sophisticated listening device found hidden in one of the company's offices, according to a Reuters report published by NBC News.
In a post on X, the ChatGPT maker said it had used its internal AI models to identify the individual responsible for planting the device and to trace its origins. "At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data. The employee was terminated," the company said, according to the report.
OpenAI said it referred the matter to the FBI, which is continuing to investigate; the FBI did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for more details. The company said its security program is designed to protect against threats ranging from insiders to cybercriminals and nation states, and described the case as an example of how AI can help address sophisticated security threats. The company did not name the employee or say which office was involved.
The arrest follows OpenAI's statement on Friday that it had fired three researchers, Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni, after an investigation found they had violated company policies on handling sensitive information. The researchers had published a letter arguing that the abrupt firings could create uncertainty among employees and undermine a culture that allowed researchers to raise safety concerns, Reuters noted.