Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI alleges former employee sent files to Apple
OpenAI filed a court claim alleging that a former employee who moved to Apple sent more than 100 files to a personal account and later briefed senior Apple leaders on an unreleased product.
- OpenAI filed the allegation in a US federal court in San Jose, California.
- The filing said a former OpenAI employee who later joined Apple sent more than 100 files about an unreleased product to a personal account and later made a presentation to senior Apple leadership.
- OpenAI said it was worried that confidential material was circulating inside Apple and could influence Apple’s future products.
- Apple said it had policies to stop new staff from using former employers’ confidential information and said it had found no evidence to support OpenAI’s claims.
- Judge Edward Davila recently allowed Apple partial early access to digital files from OpenAI and permitted depositions of three former employees, including Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan.
OpenAI filed the document in a federal court in San Jose, California, and said the employee had moved to Apple after leaving the ChatGPT maker. It alleged that the person sent more than 100 files to a personal account and later presented the unreleased product to senior Apple leadership.
OpenAI said it was concerned that confidential material was already inside Apple and could be used by Apple engineers when shaping future products. In the filing, OpenAI also pointed to Apple’s HomeView release this week as evidence that Apple was making its own AI products.
Apple rejected the claim and said it had policies and procedures meant to stop new employees from using confidential information from earlier jobs. It said it had found no evidence to support OpenAI’s allegation.
The filing formed part of a wider trade secret dispute that Apple brought earlier this year, in which Apple said employees had left with confidential information for OpenAI’s hardware division. On Tuesday, Judge Edward Davila allowed Apple to collect data from some former employees’ devices and ordered depositions of three people, including Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan.
The case was expected to go to trial in October 2027, though OpenAI said in court filings that it could be ready as soon as June 2027.
Named in this story
People
- Edward Davila
- granted Apple partial early access to OpenAI files
- Chang Liu
- was one of the two defendants named for depositions
- Tang Yew Tan
- was one of the two defendants named for depositions
Companies
- Apple
- was accused of receiving the files and denied the allegation
Organisations
- OpenAI
- filed the court allegation about the former employee
Products and systems
- HomeView
- was cited by OpenAI as a recent Apple AI product release
Places
- San Jose, California
- was the place where the filing was made
How the source tells it
Straight legal reporting with attributed claims and no overt emotive framing.
No emotive framing was found in the original.