OpenAI has escalated its legal dispute with Apple by publicly challenging Apple's trade secret theft lawsuit and publishing private communications. In a blog post titled "Apple is getting this wrong," OpenAI characterized Apple's lawsuit as "careless, aggressive, and oddly personal," while sharing iMessage and email exchanges to counter Apple's allegations. This move, although not a formal legal response, aims to sway public opinion by highlighting contradictions in Apple's case. OpenAI is arguing that Apple is blaming others for "a mess of Apple’s own making" and that Apple's lawsuit is a "baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees."
The core of Apple's lawsuit, filed last month, revolves around former Apple employees Chang Liu and Tang Tan, who are now at OpenAI. Liu, a former iPhone engineer, is accused of retaining a company-owned computer, using an authentication vulnerability to access Apple's cloud network after his departure, and downloading confidential files. Apple also alleges that Liu instructed another Apple colleague on how to download files and "avoid trouble" before she joined OpenAI. Tan, who previously oversaw iPhone and Apple Watch design for 25 years before becoming OpenAI's chief hardware officer, is accused of requesting confidential Apple information during job interviews with Apple employees for OpenAI positions and instructing interviewees to showcase Apple components they had worked on.
OpenAI has provided counter-narratives for these accusations. Regarding Liu, OpenAI claims that Apple employees contacted him to locate information and that Apple's "residual access" is a common issue due to Apple's failure to properly manage system access for former employees. OpenAI states that Liu and other former employees still had access to Apple files despite not wanting them or being aware of them. For Tan, OpenAI asserts that he "has always been clear with the team that we do not want, and must not use, any confidential information from other companies." OpenAI also refuted Apple's claim of unresponsiveness, stating that Apple's external lawyers initially contacted the wrong person due to a mix-up of "two Asian last names" and that Apple has since conceded it had not discussed the matter with OpenAI's General Counsel.
OpenAI has also filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that Apple's case fails to sufficiently describe the information it claims as trade secrets and that Apple has not plausibly alleged misappropriation. OpenAI maintains it has "no use, need or desire for Apple's trade secrets" and is focused on building "entirely new and different" products. The company suggests that Apple's policies regarding employee devices and personal accounts blurred the lines between corporate and personal information, and that Apple cannot "transform the foreseeable consequences of its own systems and policies into evidence of theft." This dispute comes at a crucial time as OpenAI develops its own hardware, creating a battle over talent with Apple, which has long dominated consumer hardware.
