Back in July, Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming that two of its former employees stole proprietary IP from Apple and handed it over to OpenAI. Now the tables have turned – OpenAI claims that an unidentified employee left Apple, worked at OpenAI for six months and then returned to Apple with stolen details on OpenAI’s hardware projects.
In its lawsuit, OpenAI alleges that this IP theft is related to the newly announced Apple HomeView hub. As you may have heard, earlier this year rumors started up that OpenAI is building a smart speaker that was developed in partnership with Jony Ive’s LoveFrom. There may or may not be AI-powered earbuds too.
The lawsuit alleges that the unnamed employee walked away with 100+ files related to OpenAI’s hardware project(s) and presented them to Apple executives. This allegedly happened months ago, though that wouldn’t be enough time to heavily influence the design of the HomeView.
The new Apple HomeView finds itself at the center of a lawsuit
For its part, Apple claims that it has procedures that prevent new employees from using confidential information from their previous company. It also denies that the presentation happened and says that there is no evidence of the stolen files on its servers.
OpenAI doesn’t buy it, though. In its filing, it writes: “OpenAI is very concerned that its trade secret and confidential information is now circulating inside Apple, where Apple engineers can shape Apple’s upcoming products based on OpenAI’s confidential and innovative work.”
This case is likely to go to trial – possibly in October of next year, though it could be sooner as OpenAI says that it could be in June.