Apple sues OpenAI and two former employees for stealing trade secrets.

Apple officially filed a lawsuit on Friday, naming OpenAI and two former Apple employees as defendants, accusing them of conspiring and systematically recruiting current and former Apple employees to steal Apple's confidential core data to facilitate the expansion of consumer hardware business for the parent company of ChatGPT. Apple stated in a press release: "Recent key evidence has emerged confirming that OpenAI employees unlawfully stole Apple's unreleased technical, production processes, and product-related confidential information." The complaint alleges that Chang Liu, a former senior electrical engineer at Apple who joined OpenAI after leaving Apple, accessed Apple's internal network multiple times and downloaded hundreds of internally marked confidential files. Apple also accuses Tang Tan of using Apple's internal project codes to extract more internal information from job candidates still working at Apple for OpenAI. It is alleged that he requested job candidates to bring physical components for demonstration and exchange; the complaint also mentions that Tang Tan held or obtained Apple's confidential offboarding control documents privately and circulated them internally, guiding new OpenAI employees to circumvent Apple's offboarding security process. Apple also accuses OpenAI of leaking Apple's confidential information to a long-term supplier during the self-developed hardware stage. The complaint states that OpenAI induced a collaborative supplier to demonstrate Apple's exclusive metal processing commercial technology, deliberately misleading the partner into thinking they had obtained Apple's authorization. Apple stated that over 400 former Apple employees have joined OpenAI. Apple is seeking a court order prohibiting the defendants from holding, using, or disclosing Apple's trade secrets, requiring the defendants to retain and return all Apple's confidential information, and seeking compensation for losses due to the theft of trade secrets and violations of cooperation agreements.