California — Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and two former employees, alleging the artificial intelligence company misappropriated trade secrets to benefit its push into consumer hardware.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in a federal court in California, targets a former Apple senior system electrical engineer and a former vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch, as well as OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC and io Products.
“This case is about Apple’s former employees stealing Apple’s trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI,” the 41-page complaint states. “Apple brings this suit to put a stop to it.”
Allegations of data theft
Apple alleges that one of the defendants failed to return a company-issued work laptop and later used an authentication bug to access its internal network, downloading “dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files.”
The other defendant, Apple claims, had been emailing himself information about Apple suppliers and internal industry summaries before his departure from the company.
“At every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple’s trade secrets and confidential information,” the complaint alleges.
From collaborators to competitors
The lawsuit dramatically escalates tensions between the two tech giants, which had maintained a cooperative relationship in recent years. Apple had allowed users to access ChatGPT results through Siri and gave iPhone users the option to sign up for ChatGPT memberships directly from iOS settings.
However, competition intensified last year when OpenAI purchased io Products, a hardware startup founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive. The acquisition signaled OpenAI’s ambition to move beyond software and into consumer hardware.
OpenAI has not clearly specified what type of device it is building, only describing it as an effort to find a new way of interacting with AI that goes beyond “traditional products and interfaces.”
OpenAI yet to respond
The company behind ChatGPT has not yet publicly responded to the lawsuit.
The legal action comes as both companies compete for dominance in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence sector, with hardware emerging as the next frontier in the AI race.