OpenAI claims 100-plus secret files followed ex-employee back to Apple

ChatGPT maker turns tables in Apple's trade secrets lawsuit, claiming confidential hardware plans made their way back to Cupertino

Apple's trade secrets spat with OpenAI has taken a new turn, with the ChatGPT maker accusing a former employee of taking more than 100 confidential files about its unreleased hardware back to Cupertino.

In a court filing submitted Wednesday, OpenAI claims the unnamed employee, who joined from Apple before returning to the iPhone maker just six months later, transferred sensitive documents to his personal accounts before leaving.

The filing alleges the files included detailed images of at least one unreleased OpenAI device, engineering and manufacturing data, supplier information, and project files, along with specifications for cosmetic finishes and reports on coating and sealing hardware components. According to the filing, some were transferred just after midnight in Singapore on June 2, which the filing claims was the employee's final day at OpenAI. 

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But OpenAI claims the information didn't simply disappear into a personal inbox. According to the filing, the former employee also allegedly presented OpenAI's product plans to Apple's senior leadership, including its vice president of operations in Asia.

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That presentation apparently happened months ago, and OpenAI is now pointing to Apple's latest push into AI-powered hardware, including its newly announced smart home products, as cause for concern.

"OpenAI is very concerned that its trade secret and confidential information is now circulating inside Apple, where Apple engineers can shape Apple's upcoming products based on OpenAI's confidential and innovative work," the company told the court.

Apple says it hasn't found anything to back up OpenAI's claims and insists it has rules to stop staff from bringing their former employers' secrets into the company.

There's a certain irony here, given that Apple was the one accusing OpenAI of stealing its secrets just a few months ago.

Back in July, Apple sued OpenAI and former employees Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan, alleging they took confidential engineering information to help the ChatGPT maker develop its own hardware. Cupertino alleged that the pair took valuable trade secrets concerning its hardware development, including information about unreleased products, to their new employer. 

OpenAI denied the accusations, saying at the time: "We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere."

Now the ChatGPT maker is claiming confidential hardware information may have traveled in the opposite direction, though it has yet to establish that Apple received or used any of the allegedly taken material.

OpenAI has asked the court for time to investigate the matter and potentially bring counterclaims against Apple. No such counterclaims have yet been filed.

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For all the talk of groundbreaking AI hardware, the biggest competition right now appears to be over who took whose files.  ®