OpenAI Publishes “Apple is Getting This Wrong” with Email Evidence in Lawsuit Rebuttal

Summary

OpenAI published a detailed rebuttal to Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit, calling it “careless, aggressive, and oddly personal.” The post, titled “Apple is getting this wrong,” includes email screenshots disputing Apple’s claim that they attempted to contact OpenAI before filing suit. OpenAI argues Apple’s outside lawyers emailed the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names, that the meeting Apple claimed to have had with OpenAI’s General Counsel never happened, and that Apple told OpenAI they were “resolving any issues” before going silent for five months and then suing. The post also defends former Apple engineering leaders Chang Liu and Tang Tan, who are central to the lawsuit.

Why it matters

This fight is about the engineers and hardware knowledge that could shape OpenAI’s future consumer devices. How it resolves will likely affect whether AI companies can continue recruiting aggressively from each other.

HTD Says

Well, this one got interesting quickly (and a lot of it is way above my pay grade). The blog article from OpenAI is really interesting, particularly the (partially redacted) messages and emails that appear at the end. I don’t know OpenAI’s strategy for sharing these communications publicly (maybe I should ask my daughter, who is studying to be a lawyer).

These are two giants who are lumbering directly at each other, each with a different strategy and endgame. I get that Apple wants to preserve the consumer AI-gadget space as much as possible. However, tech companies and AI are simply leaky sieves. Former Apple design chief Jony Ive joined OpenAI, and they have been promising some sort of AI wearable. So there’s another conflict right there.

OpenAI is not backing down quietly on the Apple lawsuit, and the email evidence they published makes Apple’s pre-suit communication look sloppy at best. This one has a long way to go. Get your popcorn!

Source:

OpenAI Blog