Apple sues OpenAI, claims former employees stole trade secrets

Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and two former employees, accusing the ChatGPT maker of using stolen trade secrets for its consumer hardware efforts.

the complaintfiled Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, names former Apple System electrical engineer Zhang Liu and former iPhone and Apple Watch design executive Tang Yew Tan, along with the OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, and io products.

Apple alleges that Liu, who left the company in January after eight years, failed to return the company’s laptop and later gained access to Apple’s internal systems through an authentication error.

“While working at OpenAI, Mr. Liu also exploited a rare and previously unknown authentication flaw to access Apple’s shared network folders,” Apple’s lawyers said in the complaint. “Upon discovering that he had this unauthorized access to Apple’s systems, Mr. Liu did not report it, return the stolen Apple-issued work laptop, or delete the software that allowed the access.”

Apple alleges that Liu downloaded dozens of confidential hardware files, including information about unreleased products, engineering presentations, technical specifications, and private project data.

The company also alleges that Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple before becoming chief hardware officer at OpenAI, used confidential information from his time at Apple to benefit OpenAI.

The complaint alleges that Tan used the names of internal Apple projects during OpenAI interviews and asked about unreleased products. Apple also claims that candidates were told to bring “actual parts” for “show and tell.”

Apple also claims that OpenAI’s hiring process requested “design/CAD artwork,” prototypes, supplier information, and details about employees’ work on Apple devices.

Apple and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment Decryption.

The lawsuit follows OpenAI $6.4 billion Acquires io Products, the hardware startup founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive. My name was not mentioned in the complaint.

According to the filing, OpenAI’s hardware division has hired more than 400 former Apple employees. Apple claims it contacted OpenAI in February over concerns about confidential information entering the company but did not receive a response.

The news comes after a separate trade secrets dispute between OpenAI and Elon Musk’s XAI. In September, xAI File a lawsuit against OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, allegedly hired former employees to obtain confidential source code, training methods, and data center strategies.

OpenAI denied the allegations, and a federal judge denied it It was rejected The June lawsuit found that xAI failed to show that OpenAI encouraged a former employee to disclose confidential information.

The lawsuit is a stark turn from the previous relationship between Apple and OpenAI.

In 2024, Apple Exploited OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to Siri As part of the Apple Intelligence initiative. However, earlier this year, Apple switched to Google twin To then power the next generation of AI models Delay I stopped the offering.