OpenAI employee who left for Apple took files about unreleased device, OpenAI alleges

By Stephen Nellis and Deepa Seetharaman

NEW YORK, ‌Oct 14 (Reuters) - An OpenAI ​employee who ​left the ChatGPT maker for Apple sent more than 100 files about an unreleased product to a personal account and later presented the product to senior Apple leadership, a new filing in the lawsuit ‌between OpenAI and Apple alleges.

In the filing in US federal court in San Jose, California, OpenAI ⁠alleged the presentation happened months ago and that Apple is now making AI products of its own, citing the release of Apple's HomeView product this ‌week.

"OpenAI is very concerned that its ‌trade secret and confidential information is now circulating inside Apple, where Apple engineers can shape Apple’s upcoming products based on OpenAI’s confidential and innovative work," OpenAI said in its filing.

Apple said it has policies and procedures in place to ensure ​new employees do not use confidential information from previous employers and it has found no evidence to support OpenAI's allegations.

The document, filed on Tuesday, is part of an ongoing trade secret dispute filed by Apple earlier this year in which ⁠it alleged employees of the iPhone maker left and took confidential information to OpenAI's hardware division. OpenAI has denied those allegations.

The dueling allegations underscore the intensifying ​battle between the two tech companies over talent and intellectual property as OpenAI pushes into consumer hardware, a market long dominated by Apple.

In an October 12 letter to OpenAI, made public ​in another court filing on Wednesday, Apple's lawyers said the two personal ‌phone numbers OpenAI identified as recipients of the files do not match the number the employee uses for his Apple work, so it appeared Apple did not have possession, custody or ⁠control of data sent to those numbers while he worked at OpenAI.

Apple's lawyers also said there was no evidence so far of OpenAI files on Apple's servers based on Apple's investigation into repositories associated with his work. Apple had not learned of any presentation by the ⁠employee about unreleased OpenAI products and asked OpenAI for more information, the letter showed.

In the court filing, Apple said OpenAI did not respond and ​instead went to court. Apple said it will continue to work with OpenAI to investigate the allegations.

Earlier this week, US District Court Judge Edward Davila granted part of Apple's request to get early access to digital files from OpenAI in the suit.

Davila said Apple could gather data ‌from some of its former employees' devices and sit three of them for depositions on a sped-up schedule, including the two defendants in the case — Chang Liu, a former senior ‌systems electrical engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, a former vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch.

The case is likely to ⁠go to trial in October 2027, though OpenAI ‌has said in court filings that ​it could be ready for trial as soon as June 2027.

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in New York and Deepa Seetharaman in San Francisco, Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Franklin Paul, Bill Berkrot and ‌Lincoln Feast.)

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