Spy Rhymes with AI - DTNS 5373

Tom Merritt (0:08)

This is the Daily Tech News for Wednesday, October 14th, 2026 We tell you what you need to know, give you important context and help each other. Please just understand.

Huyen Tue Dao (0:17)

Well, today, what happens when they put a camera where you left your spy device?

Tom Merritt (0:23)

The most hilarious picture of a spy potentially ever on the Internet. Alleged. Alleged spy.

Huyen Tue Dao (0:31)

Alleged.

Tom Merritt (0:32)

I am allegedly Tom Merritt.

Huyen Tue Dao (0:34)

And I'm allegedly Huyen Tue Dao.

Tom Merritt (0:36)

Let's start with what you need to know with that big story.

Yeah, so thanks to CW for noting this one in our subreddit as well. The US FBI has arrested a person named Abdul Rahman Al-Fazan, a Saudi national, for planting a surveillance device in an open AI executives only meeting room. At least that is the allegation. US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California charged him with using an electronic device to intercept oral communications. Important point, not charged with espionage. Only charged with using an electronic device to intercept oral communications. He could face up to five years in prison just for that, if convicted, along with a $250,000 fine and some other stuff. Open AI discovered the device during a security sweep on September 30th. Apparently, it had only been there for a couple of days. It was plugged into a USB port on the back of a television in the executives only meeting room. That's a meeting room that the person in question should not have had access to.

Open AI then placed a camera near where the device had been behind the television and caught the man looking behind the TV. It is probably the most entertaining picture of someone getting caught looking behind a TV that you have ever seen.

The man was then arrested on Friday, October 9th. The device is identified as a Seed. It's got three E's. That's why I have to say it that way. Seed Xiao ESP32 S3 Sense. It's a Chinese thumb size development board. Don't read too much into it being Chinese. All these thumb size development boards are made in China. It has a detachable camera sensor, digital microphone and a small memory card. And it was wrapped in toilet paper, which was very confusing. At first, I thought he hid it in a toilet roll and was wondering why there was a toilet roll in the executive meeting room, but he had just wrapped it so you couldn't tell immediately when you looked at it what it was.

It could do advanced encryption, audio monitoring, transfer data in a way designed to avoid detection. Pretty typical stuff for this kind of device. You can get one on Amazon for about $24, toilet paper not included.

OpenAI did not identify the kind of device itself, but this was in the prosecutors filing. Prosecutors also say they found a second encrypted recording device in Alphazan's bag. He left a bag in a printer room and it was confiscated. He went to Lost and Found to claim it. And they say they found a second device in there. That second device had been customized to obfuscate anything stored on the device, such as potentially intercepted audio. Alphazan, if you're curious, like, OK, who is this guy, started working for OpenAI in July 2025, so been on the product team for just over a year, has been a legal permanent resident of the United States since September 2020, has a master's degree in data science from the University of California, Berkeley, and has a long working history. Interned at Microsoft and Akamai and SAP, worked as an engineer at Meta, at Reach Labs, was a founding engineer at a logistics company called Nash. And then, of course, July 2025 came over to OpenAI. He's also listed as a partner on a Saudi-based investment firm named Raed, R-A-E-D.

Something that somebody who's an engineer who's become a founding partner of an engineering company might do. I don't think that necessarily is suspicious, but it shows you like this person who's been around the industry for a while. It didn't just pop up out of nowhere. AlphaZone began querying internal productivity tools about meeting rooms and schedules sometime this summer. And prosecutors allege that between September 24th and September 30th, so right in the week leading up to the discovery of this device, a chat account associated with his spouse shows records of prompts about how to build a continuous audio recorder. OpenAI says they have found no evidence that this person obtained model weights or source code or customer data or anything like that. AlphaZone's lawyer said the allegations appear wholly out of character for him and kept pointing out that he didn't get anything. They're not saying any evidence that he got any trade secrets. They're only going after the spying. A detention hearing before US Magistrate Judge Alex Jitse is set for October 19th.