Apple yesterday presented what it said was “shocking evidence” based on analysis of a MacBook owned by Chang Liu, a former employee who moved to OpenAI. The company is alleging that two of its former employees stole trade secrets relating to hardware design and more.

The AI company hit back with its own legal filing, saying that the whole situation is “a mess of Apple’s own making” …

The ongoing lawsuit is to determine whether Liu and Tang Tan stole confidential information acquired from their employment at Apple in order to help OpenAI develop an AI hardware device. In particular, it alleges that both engineers downloaded confidential engineering files after leaving the iPhone maker.

Apple was granted access to a MacBook belonging to Liu in order to carry out a forensic analysis to determine whether it held evidence of unlawful access to the company’s intellectual property. The firm yesterday submitted a court filing claiming it had found four “shocking” pieces of evidence backing its allegations.

In its own filing made the same day, Reuters reports that OpenAI doesn’t hold back.

Employees “can leave a company like Apple that has struggled to ⁠adopt ​AI and move to an exciting startup that builds innovative products,” ​OpenAI wrote. “Apple may not like those choices. But it cannot claim those choices are unlawful, and it cannot use its own sloppy ​procedures to blame others for its own mess.”

Specifically, it says the problems were caused by three issues:

• Apple encourages employees to use personal iCloud accounts to access Apple documents
• Departing employees aren’t given enough time to return company devices, transfer files back to the company, and hand over responsibilities
• Former employees are contacted by their erstwhile team members for assistance after they have left, requiring them to access company information

On the face of it, the evidence Apple provided yesterday does appear damning. OpenAI doesn’t seem to be denying that confidential Apple information was used by the company, but rather claiming that the iPhone maker failed to properly protect it.

However, while I’m not a lawyer, my understanding is that this could become a crucial argument – since companies can only claim information comprises a trade secret if they have taken appropriate steps to protect it. If OpenAI can show that Apple did not do so, then the AI company could prevail even if use of the information is proven.

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