Apple is alleging that a former employee, Chang Liu, stole trade secrets for OpenAI's benefit. In a lawsuit against OpenAI, Apple has presented what it calls "shocking evidence" to support these claims. The new details emerged after Liu's legal counsel provided his old Apple work laptop for investigation.
Apple claims Liu used a confidential Apple circuit schematic and a tool with a name similar to an internal Apple engineering application in his work at OpenAI. The company further alleges that Liu enlisted OpenAI colleague Yu-Ting Peng to help destroy evidence in June when he learned he was under investigation.
"The MacBook represents the very limited information Defendants provided so far (and only after weeks of delay), and shows Apple is not conducting ‘fishing expeditions’ but that its trade secrets are being used and evidence is being destroyed," the filing states.
While the new evidence is redacted, past filings included text messages from Liu, which he punctuated with "crying laughing" emojis, indicating he was aware of his continued access to Apple files.
OpenAI has previously defended Liu, stating he only accessed Apple files after his departure to assist former colleagues. OpenAI argued that Apple's issues with "residual access" stem from their own failure to properly manage system access for departing employees. However, Apple counters that Liu exploited a "rare, previously unknown authentication bug" to maintain access.
Apple is seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent OpenAI from using Apple's technology in hardware development during the ongoing case, as well as expedited discovery, citing concerns that more former employees may be involved. According to Apple's initial filing, over 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI.
