Apple Is Suing OpenAI for Allegedly Stealing Hardware Secrets
The lawsuit accuses OpenAI chief hardware officer Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple and oversaw iPhone product design, and his colleagues at the AI...
Key points
- The lawsuit accuses OpenAI chief hardware officer Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple and oversaw iPhone product design, and his colleagues at the AI company of encouraging people departing or considering leaving Apple to bring with them proprietary and unreleased technology.
- Tan allegedly helped coach recruits on how to evade Apple’s data security protocols and directed them to bring confidential Apple parts to job interviews at OpenAI.
- OpenAI has hired more than 400 former Apple employees, according to the lawsuit.
- It adds that Liu also coached an Apple employee he was recruiting to join OpenAI on how to “‘avoid trouble with the security team’ when copying confidential Apple files.” Apple wrote to OpenAI in February raising initial concerns about alleged theft but did not receive any response.
What happened
The lawsuit accuses OpenAI chief hardware officer Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple and oversaw iPhone product design, and his colleagues at the AI company of encouraging people departing or considering leaving Apple to bring with them proprietary and unreleased technology. Tan allegedly helped coach recruits on how to evade Apple’s data security protocols and directed them to bring confidential Apple parts to job interviews at OpenAI. OpenAI has hired more than 400 former Apple employees, according to the lawsuit. It adds that Liu also coached an Apple employee he was recruiting to join OpenAI on how to “‘avoid trouble with the security team’ when copying confidential Apple files.” Apple wrote to OpenAI in February raising initial concerns about alleged theft but did not receive any response. Other employees leaving for OpenAI have done the same, Apple alleges. In addition, Tan “has directed job candidates still working for Apple to bring ‘Actual parts’ from Apple to their interviews for ‘show and tell’ sessions in which he and his team at OpenAI can elicit still more Apple confidential information,” the lawsuit alleges, naming batteries, logic boards, and shields as...