Apple filed a federal lawsuit in California on Friday against OpenAI and two former employees, accusing them of stealing trade secrets to fuel the artificial intelligence company's material ambitions.
The 41-page complaint targets two former Apple executives now employed by OpenAI: a former senior electrical systems engineer and a former vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch. The OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, and io Products are also named in the complaint.
"This case involves former Apple employees who stole its trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI," the document states. "Apple is taking this action to put an end to it."
According to the charges, one of the defendants allegedly failed to return his work computer upon leaving the company, then exploited an authentication vulnerability to access Apple's internal network and download "dozens of confidential hardware-related files." The other defendant allegedly made a habit of emailing himself information about Apple's suppliers and internal industry summaries before leaving the company.
"At every level, from its technical staff members to its general manager of hardware, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI stole Apple's trade secrets and confidential information," the complaint alleges.
This legal action marks a sudden break after several years of cooperation between the two companies. Apple had integrated ChatGPT into Siri and offered iPhone users the option to subscribe to ChatGPT directly from the iOS settings.
Tensions have been rising since OpenAI acquired the hardware startup io Products last year, founded by Jony Ive, Apple's former head of design. OpenAI has never specified the exact nature of the device it is developing, simply referring to a new way of interacting with AI, beyond "traditional products and interfaces."
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