FBI says an OpenAI engineer used his wife’s ChatGPT account to figure out how to plant a secret recording device at the office

The ChatGPT prompts read like a to-do list.

Build “a continuous audio recorder.” Add “live listening” and “downloading/deleting recordings.” Encrypt the SD card. Make the USB output “power-only.” Develop “a second unit and speech-triggered recording,” then “a third unit.” Finally, “apply final protection and silence boot output.”

According to court documents unsealed Tuesday, the prompts were sent between Sept. 24 and Sept. 30 from a ChatGPT account linked to the wife of Abdulrahman Alfozan, an OpenAI engineer, a Saudi national who has been a U.S. legal resident since Sept. 2020. Prosecutors say that on or about Sept. 28, Alfozan hid a recording device behind a television in an executive conference room in one of the company’s San Francisco buildings after prompting an AI chatbot associated with his wife to build it. The complaint does not charge his wife.

The federal complaint against Alfozan does not list which chatbot Alfozan is alleged to have used to make such prompts, but close sources familiar with the incident have confirmed to Fortune that the chatbot was OpenAI’s own ChatGPT. The chatbot referenced Alfozan’s personal AI chatbot account and shared unique identifiers and IP usage. But his wife’s account isn’t the only chatbot Alfozan is alleged to have used in this recording incident: about six weeks earlier, court documents say Alfozan used a productivity agent internal to OpenAI to determine which meeting rooms had a capacity for six or more people, and which rooms would host high-powered meetings.

“How about external partners, where would those usually meet........

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