OpenAI asks court to throw out Apple trade secrets lawsuit, says iPhone maker is masking AI failures
Follow UsOpenAI says Apple filed the lawsuit without adequate evidence and wants the court to throw out the case.
The AI company argues Apple is using litigation to counter talent losses and its delayed AI efforts.
The legal battle follows Apple's earlier request for an injunction to stop OpenAI from allegedly using confidential trade secrets.
OpenAI has moved to dismiss the controversial Apple’s trade secret lawsuit. The ChatGPT maker has accused Apple of using the courts to cover up its own struggles in retaining talent and advancing its artificial intelligence efforts. In a filing submitted to a US federal court in California, the ChatGPT maker argued that Apple’s case lacks factual basis and should not proceed.
Survey“Apple should not be permitted to use a baseless and pretextual lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the market for talent and retaining its employees, and its failures to integrate AI into its products,” OpenAI said. The company also described Apple’s complaint as being “plainly filed without adequate investigation” and claimed it relied on selectively presented communications that stripped routine workplace interactions of their context.
This comes from a legal dispute that comes from a lawsuit filed in July stating that OpenAI and several former Apple employees misappropriated confidential information to accelerate the company’s AI hardware ambitions. Apple also named OpenAI hardware chief Tang Tan, former Apple engineer Chang Liu and several others stating that they improperly accessed or used internal information related to unreleased products and technology.
On the other hand, OpenAI has rejected these claims staging that it has ‘no use, need or desire’ for Apple trade secrets. Instead, the company has argued that it is developing an entirely different category of AI hardware and is simply attracting engineers who voluntarily chose to leave Apple.
The filing also defended its hiring practices saying interviews conducted with former Apple employees followed standard industry norms and did not involve the requests for confidential material. OpenAI further claimed Apple failed to identify any specific trade secret that had actually been obtained or used by the company.
This comes days after Apple asked a preliminary injunction asking the court to stop OpenAI and the former employees from accessing or using any alleged trade secrets while the case is pending. Apple also requested for an expedited discovery, including depositions and internal documents, arguing that it faced irreparable harm if the court did not intervene.
