In its lawsuit against OpenAI, Apple submitted what it called “shocking evidence” to support its claims that former employees stole trade secrets for OpenAI’s benefit. These new details emerged after lawyers for Chang Liu, a former Apple employee who now works at OpenAI, turned over Liu’s old Apple work laptop for investigation earlier this month.
Apple now claims that Liu used confidential Apple schematics and tools that share names with internal Apple engineering applications in his work at OpenAI. The company claims that OpenAI was “well aware” of Liu’s access to Apple data, and that Liu learned in June that Apple was investigating him and asked OpenAI colleague Yu-Ting Peng to help destroy evidence.
“The MacBook represents the very limited information that Defendants have provided thus far (and after weeks of delay), indicating that Apple is not on a ‘fishing expedition,’ but rather that trade secrets are being used and evidence is suppressed,” the filing states.
Although this new evidence has been redacted from public view, Apple’s previous filings included text messages from Mr. Liu, accompanied by “crying-laughing” emojis, indicating that he was aware that he still had access to Apple’s files.
OpenAI previously defended Mr. Liu, saying he only accessed Apple’s files to help a former colleague who asked for help after he left his job. “Apple is now trying to shift the blame to ‘residual access,’ without also making clear that this is a common problem at Apple and stems from a failure to properly manage system access when employees leave the company,” OpenAI said in a blog post earlier this month.
But Apple claims Liu continued to gain access because he “exploited a rare and previously unknown authentication bug.”
TechCrunch has reached out to OpenAI for comment on Apple’s latest allegations.
Apple is seeking a preliminary injunction (a court order barring OpenAI from developing hardware based on Apple’s technology while the case is pending) and expedited discovery, an expedited evidence-gathering process, as it claims more former employees may also be involved.
More than 400 former Apple employees currently work at OpenAI, according to Apple’s initial filing.
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