OpenAI Fires Back at Apple: 400 Left, Next 400 Won't Be Stopped
OpenAI is formally firing back at Apple's trade-secret lawsuit — and its opening move is to call the entire mess "a mess Apple made for itself." The real point of the suit, OpenAI argues, is to slow down a hardware rival and scare off any more employees who might jump ship.
Apple brought new evidence to the table the day before. Apple claims that Chang Liu, a former senior systems electrical engineer, accessed an Apple power-conversion circuit diagram after joining OpenAI and used Apple's proprietary information to train an AI agent. The evidence reportedly comes from a MacBook OpenAI handed over during the lawsuit.
OpenAI, for its part, says Liu only came into contact with Apple files after leaving because his old colleagues kept pinging him to track down documents and answer work questions. Hardware chief Tang Tan also denies making off with any secrets, insisting he returned prototype hardware before leaving and kept only non-confidential material.
Then OpenAI turns the talent war into a counterattack. Roughly 400 former Apple employees have already joined its hardware business, and Apple can't sue its way into stopping "the next 400" from leaving. The company also teases that its first hardware product will be a new consumer device "with substantive differences" from anything Apple currently makes.