Apple presents 'shocking evidence' in OpenAI lawsuit

According to 9to5mac, in new documents and evidence filed in federal court in California on August 31, Apple said that Chang Liu's lawyers handed over the MacBook that this person used after leaving Apple. "Initial forensic analysis" of the laptop revealed four pieces of evidence that Apple described as "shocking".

In it, the company said Liu not only downloaded the secret circuit diagram, but also used it in his work at OpenAI. Liu and many people at OpenAI know that this person illegally accessed Apple's cloud storage service, not "unknowingly". After learning of Apple's investigation, Liu sent a request to destroy evidence to a colleague at OpenAI. Finally, Liu uses a tool at OpenAI that "shares the same name" as an internal engineering application used for Apple's development work.

Apple accused Liu of running an unauthorized simulation of a stolen circuit diagram file on the electrical engineering tool LTspice in March - about two months after he joined OpenAI. A series of messages and commands Apple collected during this time showed that Liu taught the AI ​​agent to learn how to run diagrams on LTspice and review the results - actions that "could create irreversible and continuously widespread uses of trade secrets".

Also according to Apple, Liu initially ran the simulation on a Mac Mini, then synced via iCloud and transferred to the MacBook. Therefore, in addition to the MacBook, the company requires access to the original Mac Mini.

"This shocking evidence, which the defendant ignored despite everything being revealed, shows why Apple urgently needs evidence," Apple wrote in the filing. "The MacBook represents a very limited amount of information that the defendant has provided after weeks of delay. This evidence shows that Apple is not conducting a baseless search for information, but has a basis to believe that its trade secrets are being used and some evidence is being destroyed."

OpenAI has not yet commented.

Apple on July 10 sued two former employees, including Chang Liu, a former senior spy system engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, who served as vice president of iPhone and Apple Watch product design, along with OpenAI. In particular, the company accused Liu of keeping his laptop and accessing an internal folder to download dozens of security files after quitting his job, while Tan himself sent security documents to his personal email and lured Apple employees to smuggle information when luring them to OpenAI. Leveraging the secrets gained from the company has helped OpenAI enter the consumer hardware manufacturing sector.

According to Reuters, on August 4, Apple continued to file an additional application to the US federal court, requesting to speed up the process of collecting evidence from the group of employees who moved to work for OpenAI, including Liu, Tan and 11 other former employees discovered to be involved in the investigation process; OpenAI and related funds; and IO, the startup co-founded by "design wizard" Jony Ive.

On the blog on the same day, August 4, OpenAI denied the content of the lawsuit, affirming that it did not violate the law and counter-accusing the iPhone manufacturer of having a lax information management process. Although Sam Altman's company appeared tough, legal analysts at the time commented that the post did not directly answer Apple's central accusations.

According to Apple, there are currently more than 400 former employees of the company working at OpenAI.