Apple Sues OpenAI over Alleged Theft of Trade Secrets

According to the Financial Times, Apple filed a lawsuit on Friday in a California federal court against OpenAI and two of its employees, whom it accuses of stealing top-secret information. The iPhone maker claims that the creator of ChatGPT deliberately used former Apple engineers to steal hardware designs in order to accelerate the development of its own AI-focused consumer devices.

According to Apple, more than 400 of its former employees now work at OpenAI, and this misconduct was allegedly directly condoned by the startup's top management. OpenAI denies the allegations.

The lawsuit names former Apple hardware director Tang Tan and electrical engineer Chang Liu.

Tan allegedly leaked confidential information about suppliers before leaving and required job applicants to give presentations featuring secret Apple prototypes. According to the lawsuit, Liu failed to return company equipment, accessed network storage without authorization and taught colleagues how to bypass security controls.

Apple is seeking a court order prohibiting the destruction of evidence, the return of all data and financial compensation. The lawsuit comes at a time when OpenAI is facing pressure from investors to justify its billion-dollar valuation, while Apple, after its initial partnership with ChatGPT, has begun collaborating more closely with rival Google on the development of new Siri features.

(max)