Former OpenAI engineer detained in spy device case, Saudi royal family contact emerges

A US court granted the government's request to detain former OpenAI engineer Abdulrahman Alfozan, who is accused of placing a hidden recording device in an executive meeting room at OpenAI's San Francisco office. In filings submitted to the court, prosecutors said the 35-year-old Saudi engineer communicated frequently via WhatsApp with a member of the Saudi royal family between 2025 and 2026; the person repeatedly tried to recruit him and said in May 2026 that Saudi Arabia needed him more than the US did. The filings said that before installing the device, he used OpenAI's productivity agent to find out which meeting rooms OpenAI leadership and executives use and where they meet external partners, and used his wife's ChatGPT account to research how to build a continuous recording setup. The device was allegedly modified so it could not transmit data to or from a television, and the contents of the microSD card were encrypted. He is charged with using an electronic device to intercept oral communications and faces up to five years in prison if convicted; prosecutors argued he is a flight risk because he has ample resources and may have support from a foreign government.