Apple reveals ‘shocking evidence’ in OpenAI trade secrets lawsuit

Apple's lawsuit against OpenAI and two of its former employees over alleged stolen trade secrets is heating up.

In a new filing , Apple says it has found "shocking evidence" and is asking the court for expedited discovery.

Apple claims the limited information it found after a former employee's work laptop was returned to the company shows that "its trade secrets are being used and evidence is being destroyed.” Apple filed a lawsuit in July against OpenAI, its hardware company, io Products, and two Apple employees who now work at OpenAI.

Apple claims that former iPhone engineer Chang Liu and OpenAI Chief Hardware Officer Tang Yew Tan utilized Apple's trade secrets to develop hardware products for the AI company.

The latter previously worked at Apple for 24 years.

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Enter now for a chance to win an Apple Watch ! While the evidence is redacted from the public in the filing, Apple says that “initial forensic analysis” of Chang Liu's MacBook revealed that the former engineer used a downloaded confidential Apple circuit schematic in his work at OpenAI.

Liu also used a tool with the same name as an internal Apple engineering application in his work for OpenAI.

Apple further claims it has evidence that other employees at OpenAI were aware of Liu's unauthorized access to Apple's third-party cloud storage.

In addition, Apple says Liu sent instructions to destroy evidence to another OpenAI employee after discovering that Apple was conducting an internal investigation of him, and that the other OpenAI employee confirmed that she would comply.

According to Apple, Liu used an AI agent on the Apple circuit schematic, which "may create irreversible and continually propagating uses of the trade secret" as the AI model could utilize Apple's data for model training.

Liu's MacBook from his time at Apple also synced with a Mac mini , which was used to run the schematic, so Apple is now requesting that the desktop computer be provided as evidence as well.

Earlier this month, OpenAI went public with a response denying any wrongdoing.

OpenAI also provided text messages, which it says refute some of Apple's claims.