OpenAI accuses employee who left for Apple of leaking plans for unreleased device | Apple

An OpenAI employee who left ChatGPT’s creator for Apple sent more than 100 files about an unreleased product to a personal account and then made a presentation about the unreleased product to Apple’s senior management, according to a new filing in the lawsuit between OpenAI and Apple.

In the filing in U.S. federal court in San Jose, California, OpenAI alleged that the presentation took place months ago and that Apple now makes its own AI products, citing the release of Apple’s HomeView product this week.

“OpenAI is very concerned that its ‌secret and confidential ‌business information is now circulating within Apple, where Apple engineers can shape Apple’s upcoming products based on ‌OpenAI’s confidential and innovative work,” OpenAI said in its filing.

The two companies were scheduled to face off in court Wednesday in an ongoing trade secrets lawsuit, but the new allegation delayed the showdown. OpenAI said it may file a countersuit based on the new claim.

Apple said it has policies and procedures in place to ensure new employees do not use confidential information from previous employers and that it found no evidence to support OpenAI’s claims.

The document, filed Tuesday, is part of a trade secret dispute filed by Apple earlier this year against OpenAI. The iPhone maker claimed its own employees left and passed confidential information to OpenAI’s hardware division. OpenAI has denied these allegations.

Earlier this week, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila granted part of Apple’s request for expedited access to OpenAI’s digital files in the lawsuit.

Davila said Apple could collect device data from some of its former employees and depose three of them on an accelerated schedule, including the two defendants in the case — Chang Liu, a former senior systems electrical engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, former vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch.

The case is expected to go to trial in October 2027, although OpenAI has said in its court filings that it could be ready for trial as early as June 2027.