Apple on Friday accused OpenAI of stealing secrets about products still in development, setting up a legal face-off between two of the world’s biggest tech companies.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the consumer tech giant said that OpenAI, a leader in artificial intelligence that has a new hardware business, had asked job candidates from Apple to share details about secret projects and to bring device components and prototypes to their interviews.

Apple also accused an OpenAI employee of downloading internal documents from a laptop owned by the iPhone maker.

OpenAI used the confidential information to approach Apple’s manufacturing partners, including asking one partner to demonstrate Apple’s technique for finishing metal on its devices, the lawsuit says.

  • e461h@sh.itjust.works
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    58 minutes ago

    The bottom is finally starting to fall out for OpenAI. Sam has to be so desperate to try things like this. He should be prosecuted for all the stolen data he’s already stolen and the lies he’s told investors. Of course it has to be a tech giant to levy any kind of meaningful penalty. Quite sure Apple would like a piece of the ownership pie despite the likely coming collapse. They have so much cash it does not pose much of a risk.

  • WhatsHerBucket@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Apple also accused an OpenAI employee of downloading internal documents from a laptop owned by the iPhone maker.

    How does this work exactly?

    • SalmonTractor@discuss.tchncs.de
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      58 minutes ago

      OpenAI employee builds a rapport with an Apple employee on-site. Apple employee leaves laptop unlocked with OpenAI employee in their office and goes to the bathroom. No joke, it’s just that simple.

    • WolfLink@sh.itjust.works
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      2 hours ago

      They had an accomplice maybe. Or a careless Apple employee left their laptop somewhere. Both of those have been causes of Apple leaks in the past.

  • Xerxos@lemmy.ml
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    21 hours ago

    That sounds serious, but I wonder what it is that OpenAI wants from Apple? Currently they are mostly on the software side and Apple’s secrets more on the hardware side.

    Is it for the rumored physical AI thing they wanted to build?

  • DevDave@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    It’s kinda insane to frame OpenAI as remotely equal to Apple with “two of the world’s biggest tech companies”.

    Apple has multiple profitable revenue streams, hundreds of physical stores, that giant donut super villain headquarters, they basically own multiple factory towns in Asia, and on top of it they have an ocean of capital hidden somewhere for a “rainy century” scenario. I think their only consistent loss leader is AppleTv, right?

    OpenAI’s business is generating something embarrassing like $100 for every $1000 spent (just random exaggerated numbers as sarcasm).

    This outrageously dishonest narrative is being pushed constantly everywhere and I am more than just sick of it.

    • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      It’s kinda insane to frame OpenAI as remotely equal to Apple with “two of the world’s biggest tech companies”.

      This is kinda like how Tesla is a bigger company than other car companies combined by market cap but has a paltry market percentage and amount of cars sold.

      Market caps and valuations run purely on vibes and have for some time now.

        • DevDave@piefed.social
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          19 hours ago

          Are the flavors something like: Apple is built on captive labor while OpenAI is built on stolen art

          • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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            3 hours ago

            Very much so but hard to put into words. It’s like from which angle they’re coming in and predating upon my fellow humans. Like which legal systems or economies they’re using.

            OpenAI is also fresher, while apple has simmered for a while.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        23 hours ago

        I cant say I hate one more than the other, but I have hated Apple for much longer than I have hated OpenAI.

  • Alvaro@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 day ago

    I mean, yes, the entire premise of ChatGPT is “we stole all the data we could to give you really convincing, logically devoid, text generation!”

      • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        I know of a bunch of Apple folks (through a family friend) who went to open AI early on for big pay raises, but said it sucked there and planned to cash out after a year or 2. I wonder if they’re on anyone’s radar. Gonna ask next time I see them.

          • lazynooblet@lazysoci.al
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            1 day ago

            Exactly. Comments from people not reading the article are not uncommon, but these haven’t even read the synopsis included in the post.

            • badgermurphy@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              Often, the subject of conversations drift or expand to adjacent and related subjects. I have seen so many of these comment police posts trying to constrain the comments to the point where essentially they’re just summarizing the article, and I dont understand why.

              In my case, I was replying to the previous poster, not the article. In his case, I dont know what his intentions were, but I also don’t care whether he read it for the context of the tiny thread it was in. I was responding to the comment he made in that thread.

              You can even make your own thread if you don’t like this one! Give it a whirl! You can engage with whatever content you want, or make your own. Theres a secret 3rd option, too: you can choose not to engage with it if you dont like it.

              I dont think we need 2 comment cops to write us a comment moving violation though. You can cover more ground if you split up and harangue twice as many people at a time.

  • magnetosphere@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    Most of the time, I don’t care about corporate slap fights, but this will be fun to watch.

    • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      If even half the accusations are true, then OpenAI doesn’t have a chance in hell of existing at the end of this. The accusation alone might sink the company. They’re projected to be completely out of money this time next year, they might have saved it with an IPO, but the general vibe is not optimistic for them, and that was before being accused of blatant industrial espionage of Apple IP.

      I have never once given Apple money, and very likely never will, but if they kill OpenAI and pop this bubble then I’ll give them a slight nod of respect before I go back to asking pointed questions about why all their factories need suicide nets.

      • Sundray@lemmus.org
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        1 day ago

        It might be a long shot but there is a possibility that if they lose, OpenAI just hands the keys over to Apple. I don’t know if that would be a good thing or a bad thing.

        • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Suing as a patent troll, but this sound lass like Apple being Apple, and more like some serious, and highly illegal, industrial espionage from OpenAI and Sam Altman.

          Sam Altman built his business on theft, and may very well seriously overstepped here. I also expect a bunch of former Apple employees going to jail over the physical thefts, and that too will cause OpenAI problems because they asked for the thefts, and likely paid the former Apple employees.

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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    2 days ago

    Apple on Friday accused OpenAI of stealing

    That’s pretty much OpenAI’s modus operandi, is it not? Like, they’ve stolen from everyone else on the planet, why did Apple think they were special? It’s like they invited the Hamburgler to their BBQ and are shocked when all the sliders disappear.

    Illustrated

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      There’s scraping data, which should be considered stealing, and then there’s asking people to steal company data as part of an interview process.

      This is actual industrial espionage. If true, it could be a big deal.

    • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Apple is very litigious when it comes to their products, and has the capital and the best lawyers in the world available for them to call on.

      The legal fees on this will cost millions.

  • DataCrime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    It was totally the AI guys… It’s evolving so fast even we can’t comprehend it. It’s totally not one of our engineers.

    Apple is just pissed nobody’s going for enhanced intelligence.