Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets(9to5mac.com)
1632 points by stock_toaster 61 days ago | 941 comments
tl;dr: Apple has sued OpenAI, io Products, and two former Apple employees—ex-VP of product design Tang Tan and engineer Chang Liu—alleging they stole trade secrets to benefit OpenAI's hardware efforts led by Jony Ive. The complaint claims Tan used insider knowledge to extract confidential info from Apple job candidates (including asking them to bring actual parts and CAD files to interviews), while Liu allegedly exploited a security bug to download thousands of pages of engineering documents. Apple says over 400 former employees now work at OpenAI and calls the alleged misconduct "the tip of the iceberg."
HN Discussion:
  • Evidence in the complaint appears damning and shows deliberate misconduct by OpenAI
  • OpenAI has a pattern of disregarding laws and IP, making it fundamentally untrustworthy
  • Businesses and users should avoid OpenAI products due to risk to their own IP
  • Apple's resources and discovery process could devastate OpenAI's hardware ambitions
  • This reflects a broader industry problem where AI companies are rewarded for theft