Apple targets ex-execs at OpenAI over stolen design secrets
Corporate drama reached peak comedy as Apple sent urgent legal warnings to its former employees now cooking up AI hardware at OpenAI. When hiring competitors' engineers becomes an espionage thriller, saving chat logs is the only defense.
Legal notices landed in the inboxes of around 40 former Apple employees who recently jumped ship to OpenAI, ordering them to preserve every single email and chat. Apple filed a lawsuit claiming a coordinated scheme to siphon confidential hardware designs and manufacturing secrets.
The core of the dispute centers on key design figures, including Tang Tan, who spent 24 years leading product design at Apple before becoming hardware director at OpenAI, alongside former senior systems engineer Chang Liu. One former engineer allegedly downloaded massive volumes of confidential files from shared company folders weeks after quitting.
While taking souvenirs from an ex-employer usually means a stolen coffee mug, Apple suspects the digital haul runs far deeper. Over 400 former Apple workers now staff OpenAI, fueling claims that this intellectual property migration is more than just coincidence.
OpenAI publicly brushed off the allegations, telling Bloomberg that no evidence of wrongdoing exists. Apple is demanding a court injunction to freeze OpenAI's hardware development and block any use of its trade secrets.
The tech landscape has officially descended into an open custody battle over trade secrets and engineering talent. Watching tech giants brawl over leaked folder downloads proves that even billions in AI capital cannot prevent classic corporate paranoia.
Source: Financial Times
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