OpenAI Facilities Memo Clarifies Toilet Paper Is Not an Approved TV Accessory

SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI’s facilities team circulated a memo Wednesday reminding employees that toilet paper is a restroom product and not an approved accessory for the back of a conference-room television.

The reminder follows a federal complaint alleging that engineer Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, tucked a thumb-sized recording device wrapped in toilet paper into a USB port behind the TV in an executive conference room, a spot facilities staff said had previously held one HDMI dongle and a 2019 lanyard.

“Behind a TV you expect dust, a sticky note that says ‘do not unplug,’ maybe half a sandwich,” said Dex Cablewright, 41, an AV technician who admits he would have logged it as a firmware update. “You don’t expect two-ply. Two-ply means somebody planned.”

Under the new rules, toilet paper found outside a restroom is to be treated as listening until proven absorbent. Any gadget the company calls “sophisticated” must now cost more than $13.99, the price its maker lists online.

The lost-and-found form was revised, too. Prosecutors say the engineer reclaimed a bag he had left in a printer room, then reported a credit card, about $500 in cash and two AirPods missing, without mentioning the second recording device security had removed. The form now ends with a checkbox: “Anything else? Be honest.”

“People forget to list their gum,” said Marnie Keepsake, 58, who runs the lost and found. “I’ve never had someone remember both AirPods and forget the wiretap.”

As of press time, the executive conference room had been restocked with a single roll of toilet paper on a tray mid-table, labeled “DECOY,” and nobody would sit near it.