OpenAI says a former employee now at Apple sent more than a hundred confidential files to himself

OpenAI accuses an engineer who worked for it and has gone back to Apple of having sent more than a hundred highly confidential files to his personal accounts, covering at least one device that it is still developing and has not yet unveiled. It did so in a filing on Wednesday, October 14, before the federal court in San Jose, California, as part of the trade secrets lawsuit Apple brought against OpenAI in July. The engineer's name is blacked out in the documents.

According to OpenAI, the engineer came from Apple, spent six months at OpenAI and returned to Apple. The files include detailed images of the device, engineering and manufacturing data, supplier information and reports on the coating and sealing of parts. Some of them went out shortly after midnight, Singapore time, on June 2, his last day at the company. OpenAI adds that, to its knowledge, the engineer laid out OpenAI's product plans months ago to Apple's top management, including its vice president of operations in Asia. It is asking the judge for the chance to look into what happened and, if needed, to countersue.

Apple answered the same day with a filing of its own. It says OpenAI went to the judge without warning it and that the accusation has nothing to do with its lawsuit. In Apple's account, OpenAI raised the suspicion on Friday, October 9, Apple opened an investigation that same afternoon and on Monday the 12th told OpenAI in a letter that it had not located any OpenAI confidential information. It asked for more specific details so it could run other searches and OpenAI, instead of replying, took the matter to court.

In that letter, Apple states that it knows of no presentation by that engineer about OpenAI products and that he works on its manufacturing design team, the same job he held before leaving, with a focus on the iPhone. As 9to5Mac reports, it also notes that the description of one of the files seems to point to two quality control methods in wide use since at least the 1990s, and that, beyond searching for the exact file name, which it is already doing, finding it from those terms alone is hard. Apple offers to search again if OpenAI gives it more precise file names or terms.

At the hearing that Wednesday, Judge Edward Davila said he is "highly likely" to grant Apple an injunction stopping its former employees now at OpenAI from using its confidential information, according to Bloomberg in a story published by Claims Journal. The judge did not side with Apple on everything: he called the forensic inspection it proposed of every device and repository holding Apple secrets a "huge ask." OpenAI denies Apple's accusations and maintains that it has no need for its trade secrets.