Apple Sues OpenAI, Alleging Theft of Trade Secrets

Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the artificial intelligence company of stealing its trade secrets to develop its own hardware. In its lawsuit, Apple stated that OpenAI recruited Apple employees and induced them to hand over confidential materials, product designs, and other highly protected information. “Recently, significant evidence has emerged indicating that individuals working at OpenAI have unlawfully taken Apple’s confidential and proprietary information relating to our unreleased technology, processes, and products,” an Apple spokesperson said. Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for OpenAI, said the company is reviewing the lawsuit documents filed in court. “We are not interested in the trade secrets of other companies,” he said. “We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere,” he added. Under a separate agreement, Apple integrated OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT, into the operating systems of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. However, when Apple introduced an update to its Siri voice assistant last month, the AI component used was based on Google’s Gemini AI model, not ChatGPT. Tensions between the two companies began to emerge last year when OpenAI spent $6.4 billion to acquire a hardware startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive. Ive’s startup, io Products, is also named in Apple’s lawsuit. “OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now stands on a very fragile foundation, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on unlawfully obtained trade secrets,” Apple stated in its lawsuit documents. Tang Yew Tan, head of OpenAI’s hardware division and a former Apple vice president, is named in the lawsuit. Apple accuses Tan of bringing information about Apple’s suppliers to OpenAI and encouraging OpenAI job candidates to disclose confidential company information. In the lawsuit documents, Apple alleges he directed job candidates still working at Apple to bring “original components” from Apple to their interviews for “show and tell” sessions, where he and his team at OpenAI could obtain more of Apple’s confidential information. Chang Liu, another former Apple employee named in the lawsuit who later worked at OpenAI, is accused of taking an Apple laptop when leaving the company. Apple claims Liu exploited an authentication loophole to penetrate the company’s internal network and download “dozens of Apple confidential files relating to hardware.” “Our teams continue to develop breakthrough technology to create the world’s best products and services, and protecting that work and their intellectual property is something we take incredibly seriously,” the Apple spokesperson said. Apple is seeking damages and a court order that would prevent OpenAI from possessing or using the company’s trade secrets.