Apple files lawsuit accusing ChatGPT maker OpenAI of stealing trade secrets

Apple files lawsuit accusing ChatGPT maker OpenAI of stealing trade secrets. Apple has sued OpenAI and two former employees, alleging misappropriation of its trade secrets as the artificial intelligence company seeks to build its own hardware for ChatGPT, a major rupture in a partnership between the iPhone maker and the AI giant. The complaint, filed in a California federal court on Friday, alleges a coordinated effort to steal Apple's confidential information, including product designs, manufacturing processes and supply chain strategies. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The lawsuit names Chang Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, a former vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, as defendants, along with the OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC and io Products. More than 400 former Apple employees now work for OpenAI, Apple said in the filing, adding that "it is not surprising" that some of them have knowledge of its confidential information. "That OpenAI now employs people who were once entrusted with Apple's trade secrets does not entitle OpenAI to use that information to jumpstart its hardware efforts," the iPhone maker wrote in its complaint. OpenAI bought hardware startup io Products, founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, last year in a $6.5bn deal, in a push to move beyond software into consumer hardware. Ive is not named in the lawsuit.