Apple vs. OpenAI: Hundreds of former employees at the center of a massive legal storm
The disclosure of new evidence in court is causing deep concern at Apple, which discovered that hundreds of its employees have moved to its main competitor. The company's true fear regarding the leakage of its most secret developments has now been revealed.
The legal battle between Apple and OpenAI is escalating. As part of the lawsuit conducted by Apple, the company submitted what it defines as particularly incriminating evidence against a former employee, Chang Liu, who currently works at OpenAI. The new information was discovered after his old laptop was handed over for inspection. According to the allegations, Liu used a secret electrical schematic from Apple in his work at OpenAI and even enlisted the help of a colleague to destroy evidence last June, as soon as he learned that an investigation had been opened against him.
In the documents submitted to the court, it is explicitly written:
"The computer represents the most limited information the defendants have provided so far, and shows that Apple is not on a fishing expedition, but that its trade secrets were used and evidence was destroyed."
OpenAI previously claimed in Liu's defense that this was residual access resulting from Apple's failure to manage the permissions of employees who left the company. Conversely, Apple strongly rejects this claim and argues that Liu exploited a rare and unknown security vulnerability.
Following these findings, Apple is asking the court to issue a temporary injunction that would prohibit OpenAI from working on hardware based on its technology. In addition, the company is demanding to accelerate the evidence disclosure proceedings, fearing that additional employees are involved in the affair. According to the initial lawsuit data, over four hundred former Apple employees are currently employed at OpenAI, which increases the fear of secret technology leakage.
