OpenAI vs Apple

If you've been following the drama between Apple and OpenAI, here's the latest episode: OpenAI is done playing defense quietly, they just asked a federal court in California to throw out Apple's trade secrets lawsuit entirely, and it didn't hold back while doing it.

OpenAI and Apple backstory

Back in July, Apple sued OpenAI, claiming the ChatGPT maker had been poaching Apple employees to get its hands on secret information about Apple hardware projects. Apple believes OpenAI used former (and even current) Apple staff to pull confidential info out the door with them.

Guess what OpenAI is working on its own AI gadget (since they have done so well in turning OpenAI into a profitable company).

Reportedly, it's a small, screen-free device that picks up on what's happening around you through audio and visuals, powered by the team OpenAI got when it bought Jony Ive's studio, io Products, for $6.4 billion last year. Ive himself isn't named in the lawsuit, but plenty of former Apple designers and engineers who left to join that effort are very much part of it.

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OpenAI: "you're blaming us for your own problems"

In its court filing, OpenAI argued that Apple is using this lawsuit to cover up its own struggles - trouble holding onto talent and trouble getting AI features into its products fast enough. OpenAI lawyers pointed out that California actually has laws that protect employees' ability to move between companies, and that this kind of job-hopping is part of what's made the state's tech industry so dominant in the first place.

Beyond that broader argument, OpenAI picked apart the specifics of Apple's case:

• OpenAI says Apple never actually identified what confidential information was supposedly stolen. Instead, they argue Apple is really upset about its own messy employee offboarding process, which led to some awkward communication with people after they'd already left the company.
• Apple claimed information about its suppliers was proprietary, but OpenAI says that stuff is either legal to share or already publicly available.
• Apple named Tang Tan in the lawsuit, OpenAI's current hardware chief and a former Apple executive, accusing him of pressing Apple employees for internal secrets during job interviews, even allegedly encouraging them to bring in Apple's prototype devices.
  OpenAI's response is basically that these were just normal interview questions :) , the kind any employer might ask about someone's background and experience.
• One of the more interesting details involves electrical engineer Chang Liu, who Apple accused of taking confidential files before and after joining OpenAI.
  OpenAI's counter is that Apple itself asked Liu to go back into his account and retrieve information, after the company had rushed him out the door the moment he announced he was resigning. There's also a claim that Apple encouraged employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work stuff, which blurred the line between personal and company data and made it harder to properly cut off access when people left.

Once Upon a time Apple and OpenAI were partners

Just two years ago, Apple and OpenAI were partners - ChatGPT was built into Apple products, but things have shifted earlier this year, Apple turned to Google instead, using its Gemini AI models to power the revamped Siri. That was widely seen as a snub to OpenAI, even though ChatGPT is technically still available on Apple devices.

Since then, things have only escalated. On top of the lawsuit, Apple has reportedly sent legal letters to dozens of former employees who now work at OpenAI, warning them about handling confidential information.

In Today's Episode

Apple isn't backing down either, they asked the judge overseeing the case to issue an injunction, which would stop OpenAI from using any of the information it's accused of taking and would require it to preserve evidence for the case. A hearing on that request is set for October.