OpenAI is not interested in a quiet settlement with Apple. The company has asked a federal judge to dismiss Apple’s trade-secrets lawsuit outright, in a filing that turns the accusation back on its accuser.
The case has been building for weeks. Apple sued OpenAI for stealing trade secrets, alleging that former employees carried confidential material with them and that OpenAI fished for more during recruiting interviews.
Also, more than 400 former Apple staff have joined OpenAI, a migration that has fed Apple’s suspicion as both companies race to build AI-powered hardware.
OpenAI’s 31-page motion is unusually pointed. It casts the suit as pretextual, arguing that Apple is using litigation to compensate for its own stumbles in artificial intelligence rather than to remedy any real theft.
Its central argument is about Apple’s own systems; OpenAI says Apple encouraged staff to use personal iCloud accounts for work and reviewed personal iMessages on company devices, blurring the line between corporate and personal data.
