India, Oct. 14 -- Tucked behind a television set in an executive conference room at OpenAI's San Francisco office was a recording device so carefully concealed that it took nearly a week of internal investigation before company staff confirmed what they had found.

What happened next has set off a federal criminal case that reaches into the heart of America's most consequential artificial intelligence laboratory, and has renewed urgent questions about the vulnerability of cutting-edge AI research to insider espionage.

An employee of OpenAI has been arrested for and charged with using or endeavouring to use an electronic, mechanical or other device to intercept oral communications.

Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a national of the Kingdom of Sa...