Apple Sues OpenAI for Trade Secret Theft: Former Apple Engineer Chang Liu Accessed Apple Cloud Storage While Working for OpenAI and Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan Allegedly Asked Job Candidates to Bring Actual Apple Parts to Interviews
Apple is suing OpenAI for trade secret theft, alleging the AI company deliberately and systematically solicited and stole confidential information from current and former Apple employees.
Apple said in a statement: “Recently, significant evidence has emerged suggesting individuals employed by OpenAI wrongfully took Apple’s secret and confidential information regarding our unreleased technologies, processes, and products.” Axios
The lawsuit centres on two individuals. Chang Liu, a former senior electrical engineer at Apple, discovered a bug that allowed him to access Apple’s cloud file storage after leaving the company while already employed by OpenAI. According to the filing, Liu celebrated the exploit and downloaded dozens of confidential files, many labelled as confidential.
Tang Tan; Apple veteran and now OpenAI’s chief hardware officer, is accused of using Apple’s internal codenames to solicit proprietary information from current Apple employees being recruited to OpenAI, asking them to bring actual hardware parts including batteries, logic boards and SIPs for “show and tell.”
He also allegedly circulated an Apple offboarding document to teach new OpenAI hires how to dodge Apple’s exit security checks.
Apple says over 400 former employees now work at OpenAI. The company seeks to stop defendants from possessing or using its trade secrets, the return of all Apple materials, and damages. Jony Ive, Apple’s former chief design officer who now leads OpenAI’s device work, was not named in the suit.
Apple and OpenAI are current partners. ChatGPT is integrated into Apple products. The lawsuit is the most aggressive sign yet that the partnership is fracturing beyond repair.
Check out our previous coverage of Apple, OpenAI and Big Tech on The Trusted Times.
