Two of the biggest names in tech are about to go head to head in court, with employee recruitment practices at the center of a new lawsuit.
Apple sued OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, earlier this month, alleging the latter poached employees and encouraged them to share trade secrets.
In an email to The Guardian, an Apple spokesperson said that recently “significant evidence has emerged suggesting individuals employed by OpenAI wrongfully took Apple’s secret and confidential information regarding our unreleased technologies, processes and products.” The suit claims more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI.
See also: HR tech CEO and former OpenAI exec discuss AI’s workforce implications
Apple suit specifically names two former employees, now at OpenAI
Specifically, the federal suit, filed in the Northern District of California, names OpenAI Chief Hardware Officer Tang Yew Tan—a former vice president of product design at Apple—whom the firm contends shared supplier information and urged candidates coming from Apple to share confidential information during job interviews. According to the court ruling, Tan instructed some candidates to bring “actual parts” to “show and tell” at their interview.
Also named in the suit is former Apple employee Chang Liu, whom OpenAI alleges kept an Apple-issued laptop after he left and downloaded “confidential hardware-related files.”
“OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations,” the filing states, “rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets.”
In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company has “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”
However, the complaint suggests that the outlined allegations are just the “tip of the iceberg.”
“Discovery will expose that the misappropriation has been occurring on a scale many times greater” than what is contained in the filing.
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