Grab the Popcorn: OpenAI Reveals Embarrassing Evidence Against Apple
OpenAI has published a sharp response to Apple's lawsuit, accusing the company of negligence and presenting false information. To support its position, the ChatGPT developer released internal correspondence.
With all due respect to "The Odyssey" or the new Spider-Man, we will probably need the biggest bucket of popcorn for the legal battle between Apple and OpenAI.
Screenshots, emails, and iMessage messages
Last month, Apple filed a lawsuit and a request for an injunction against OpenAI. Apple's claim was that the developer of ChatGPT is trying to recruit Apple employees to steal Cupertino's trade secrets in the hardware field. Now it is OpenAI's turn to respond, and it is definitely not staying silent; in an official and quite unusual post, OpenAI is now publishing a sharp response accompanied by screenshots, emails, and internal iMessage correspondence.
The post begins with a direct jab at Cupertino: "Apple is one of the greatest companies of all time, and has built a reputation for being obsessed with the smallest details." So far so good, but then comes the sentence: "This negligent, aggressive, and strange lawsuit, unfortunately, does not live up to that reputation."
Then OpenAI addresses one of Apple's central claims, according to which it reached out to OpenAI last February but was ignored. However, from the email correspondence now published by Sam Altman's company, a chain of, apparently, embarrassing mistakes emerges. According to OpenAI, Gabriel Gross, Apple's lawyer, did indeed send a letter to OpenAI, but confused "two Asian surnames." Beyond the confusion, it is important to remember that in American culture, certainly in Silicon Valley, this is the closest thing to an accusation of racism on the part of Apple and its lawyers. Beyond that, Apple's lawyer claimed in another email that he spoke on the phone with OpenAI's legal counsel, Che Chang, and received quick cooperation, even though, as mentioned, this did not actually happen.
Chang (OpenAI's real legal counsel), who was stunned to discover this claim in the email, immediately turned to Apple's internal legal department and wrote: "This guy from Weil (Apple's law firm, Y.A.) claims to represent you. For some reason, he is lying about a phone conversation with me. I don't know who he is and we have never spoken." In addition, Chang writes to Apple's legal department: "I don't understand what the point of this lie is, but could you confirm if he actually represents you?".
In response to this email, Apple's lawyer was forced to admit his mistake and that he had confused the 2 Asian names. In the email he sent after that, he explained that he meant a former employee named Wang, apologized for the confusion, and clarified that the matter was being handled. Apple then claimed that it was trying to resolve the issue, but from that moment on, it ghosted and disappeared for five whole months, during which it did not raise any specific claim... until it filed the lawsuit now, unexpectedly.
Apple employees asked for help, Apple accused the employee of unauthorized access
Another central issue in the lawsuit concerns Chang Liu, a former systems engineer at Apple. In the statement of claim, Apple accused Liu of unauthorized access to its confidential information after his employment ended. However, iMessage correspondence from the first days after his departure shows a completely opposite picture. According to these correspondences, it was Apple employees themselves who reached out to Liu and asked for his help in locating files, drawings, checking voltage diagrams, and even in understanding various decisions on development issues from his past at the company. OpenAI explained that the access Liu retained to the company's assets stems from a known problem Apple has in managing permissions for departing employees. This phenomenon causes former employees to remain connected to iCloud accounts and shared folders even if they don't want to at all, often without them even being aware of it. That is, yes, the former employee accessed Apple's systems, but following a request from employees at the company and because of a feature-bug in its IT systems. Apparently.
Another claim by OpenAI concerns the recruitment to the company of Tang Tan, who worked at Apple for more than 24 years, and today leads the hardware team at OpenAI. OpenAI shows how Tan instructed the team in the sharpest and clearest way: "We do not want, and we are not allowed to use, any confidential information from other companies."
Finally, OpenAI summarizes and argues that Apple's request for a temporary injunction is based on false information and is completely unnecessary. "We do not have, and we do not want, any of their trade secrets," the company noted. "We are much more interested in building innovative products and technologies that push the boundaries." Shots Fired.
No response was received from Apple.
