The legal fight between Apple and OpenAI turned public and personal this week. OpenAI published a blog post titled “Apple is getting this wrong,” airing private messages and emails to rebut Apple’s trade-secrets lawsuit. On the same day, Apple escalated in court. Two former partners are now trading blows in the open.
Apple sued in July, accusing OpenAI of profiting from secrets carried out by former Apple staff. OpenAI’s post called the suit “careless, aggressive and oddly personal,” and denied the core claim. “We do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets,” it wrote.
OpenAI’s sharpest jab was about a mistake. Apple had said it contacted OpenAI in February and got no reply. OpenAI tells it differently.
It says Apple’s outside lawyer emailed its general counsel by accident, and claimed a phone call that never happened. The lawyer then admitted the message was meant for a different former Apple employee, surname Wang. OpenAI cast the mix-up as Apple “confusing two Asian last names,” and said it only surfaced when OpenAI flagged it.
The emails, which also appear in Apple’s own court filings, show the lawyer later apologising. Apple’s counsel had described itself as “resolving any issues,” OpenAI wrote. Then came roughly five months of silence before the lawsuit landed.
