Policy & Regulation
Apple shares 'shocking evidence' against ex-employee tied to OpenAI
Apple filed new evidence, including a laptop, alleging former employee Chang Liu — now at OpenAI — used stolen trade secrets and helped destroy evidence.
In its lawsuit against OpenAI, Apple filed what it calls “shocking evidence” to bolster its allegations that former employees stole trade secrets for OpenAI’s benefit. The new details emerged after the legal counsel for former Apple employee Chang Liu, who now works at OpenAI, handed over Liu’s old Apple work laptop for investigation earlier this month.
Apple now alleges that Liu used a confidential Apple circuit schematic in his work at OpenAI, as well as a tool that shares a name with an internal Apple engineering application. The company claims OpenAI was “well-aware” of Liu’s access to Apple data, and alleges Liu enlisted OpenAI colleague Yu-Ting Peng to help destroy evidence in June, after learning Apple was investigating him. “The MacBook represents the very limited information Defendants provided so far (and only after weeks of delay), and shows Apple is not conducting ‘fishing expeditions’ but that its trade secrets are being used and evidence is being destroyed,” the filing reads.
While the new evidence is redacted from public view, past filings from Apple have included text messages from Liu — punctuated with “crying laughing” emojis — that Apple says show he was aware he still had access to Apple files. OpenAI has previously defended Liu, saying he only accessed Apple files after leaving the company in order to help former colleagues who asked for his assistance, and that Apple is trying to “shift the blame to ‘residual access,’” a problem the company says stems from Apple’s own failure to properly manage system access when employees leave. Apple counters that Liu had continued access because he “exploited a rare, previously unknown authentication bug.” TechCrunch has requested comment from OpenAI on Apple’s newest allegations.
Apple is seeking a preliminary injunction that would block OpenAI from working on hardware based on Apple’s technology while the case is ongoing, as well as expedited discovery, alleging that more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI.
Why it matters
The dispute underscores how aggressively Apple is trying to protect its hardware secrets as AI labs like OpenAI recruit heavily from its ranks, and a court-ordered injunction could directly slow OpenAI’s push into hardware.