OpenAI Puts Apple Lawsuit on Public Trial

The creator of ChatGPT has publicly released message exchanges, asserting that "Apple is getting this wrong" in their ongoing legal dispute.

The legal confrontation between Apple and OpenAI has intensified following the ChatGPT-maker's public disclosure of evidence designed to refute Apple's account of events. In a blog post published overnight, aptly titled "Apple is getting this wrong," OpenAI characterized Apple's lawsuit, which accuses it of trade secret theft, as "careless, aggressive, and oddly personal." The post included iMessage and email exchanges to challenge core allegations of the case.

This move by OpenAI is not presented as a formal legal defense, but rather an endeavor to sway public opinion by highlighting perceived inconsistencies in Apple's claims through the selective release of communications.

Apple's lawsuit, initiated last month, primarily centers on two former employees, Chang Liu and Tang Tan, who have since transitioned to OpenAI. Liu, a former iPhone engineer, now contributes to OpenAI’s technical team, while Tan, who served Apple for 25 years overseeing iPhone and Apple Watch design, currently holds the position of OpenAI’s chief hardware officer. Apple alleges that these individuals took "secret and confidential information regarding our unreleased technologies, processes, and products" to further OpenAI's hardware initiatives. Reports indicate that Apple sought a preliminary injunction to prevent Liu, Tan, and OpenAI from accessing, acquiring, using, or disclosing any purported confidential information as the lawsuit proceeds.

In response, OpenAI stated in its blog post, "Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction is both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets. We’re much more interested in building innovative products and technologies that push the frontier."

Apple's lawsuit further claims that Liu failed to return a company-issued computer and exploited an authentication vulnerability to access Apple’s cloud-based network storage several weeks after his departure. Liu is also accused of downloading confidential files from Apple's storage system and instructing a fellow Apple colleague, prior to her joining OpenAI, on how to perform similar downloads while "avoid[ing] trouble" with the company’s security team.

OpenAI, however, presents a different perspective on these accusations: "Apple accuses Chang Liu of accessing Apple confidential information after leaving the company, but only now admits that Apple employees reached out to him and asked for his help to locate this information. Apple now tries to shift the blame to “residual access”, but they also don’t disclose that this is a common issue with Apple which is caused by them failing to properly manage system access when people leave. What that means in practice is that former employees who are trying to do the right thing when they leave still have access to Apple files—despite not wanting them or even being aware of them.“

Regarding Tang Tan, Apple's lawsuit alleges that he requested confidential Apple information during interviews with Apple employees for positions at OpenAI and instructed interviewees to showcase specific Apple components they had worked on. OpenAI counters this by stating that Tan "has always been clear with the team that we do not want, and must not use, any confidential information from other companies."

Furthermore, OpenAI's blog post refuted allegations of failing to respond to Apple's initial inquiries, asserting that Apple "now admit that their outside lawyers emailed the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names," and has since conceded that no discussion occurred with OpenAI’s General Counsel. The ChatGPT-maker subsequently published emails detailing interactions between the legal counsel of both companies, alongside iMessages exchanged between Liu and an Apple employee.