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OpenAI rejected Apple's claims that it stole trade secrets, arguing the dispute stems from Apple's failure to demonstrate any confidential information was taken by former employees. The AI lab, led by CEO Sam Altman, called the lawsuit a mess of Apple's own making and accused the iPhone maker of using the case to slow a potential competitor. Apple sued OpenAI and two former employees, Tang Tan and Chang Liu, in July, alleging misappropriation of hardware design, manufacturing, and supply-chain secrets as OpenAI expands into consumer devices. OpenAI noted it has hired about 400 employees from Apple for its hardware initiative. The filing also claimed Apple encourages workers to use personal iCloud accounts for work documents, making it difficult to separate personal and company information, and that Apple's policy of immediately escorting departing employees prevents proper handover of devices and files.
OpenAI denied Apple’s allegations of trade secret theft on Monday, saying the iPhone maker failed to show any confidential information was stolen by former employees.
“This dispute is a mess of Apple’s own making, and it is trying to blame everyone else,” OpenAI said in a filing late Monday in US District Court in San Jose, California. Apple sued OpenAI and former Apple employees Tang Tan and Chang Liu in July, accusing them of misappropriating trade secrets related to hardware design, manufacturing and supply-chain operations as the ChatGPT maker pushes into consumer devices.
The AI lab, led by chief executive Sam Altman, contends Apple is using the lawsuit to slow a potential competitor and discourage employee departures. OpenAI has hired roughly 400 employees from Apple for its hardware initiative, the two companies have written in court filings. The lawsuit represented a dramatic escalation of tensions between the two companies, which just two years ago forged a partnership intended to boost ChatGPT’s reach and help Apple gain a firmer footing in AI.
But the relationship quickly soured as competition in the AI industry intensified. In its original lawsuit, Apple argued that OpenAI’s hiring of Apple employees was part of the AI lab’s strategy to learn a competitor’s secrets. Apple said Tan and Liu both accessed internal Apple files after they left the company.
OpenAI said on Monday that Apple encourages its employees to use personal iCloud accounts to access Apple work documents and perform their work functions, making it difficult for departing employees to separate personal and company information. OpenAI said Apple’s policy of immediately escorting departing employees from its premises does not give them enough time to return company devices, transfer internal files back to the company or hand over responsibilities.
In the filing, Liu said any access to Apple documents after his departure was done to help former Apple colleagues locate files or answer questions related to Apple work. He said Apple employees repeatedly contacted him for assistance after he left. Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple, said he returned Apple prototypes before departing and only retained non-confidential materials, including an employee departure checklist that was not confidential.
Employees “can leave a company like Apple that has struggled to adopt AI and move to an exciting startup that builds innovative products”, OpenAI wrote.
“Apple may not like those choices. But it cannot claim those choices are unlawful, and it cannot use its own sloppy procedures to blame others for its own mess. ” - ReutersA Wicklow woman in Marbella: ‘I would make friends in the summer and they would then go home.
But I found my tribe’Farmer Phil: ‘The story goes that a tree in our field was planted by Cromwell’s grandchildren 350, 400 years ago’Young people’s working woes and what David Beckham tells us about advertising today
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