Apple on Friday filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and two former employees over what it said was misappropriation of the giant phonemaker's trade secrets to benefit the AI company's venture into consumer hardware.

The lawsuit is against a former Apple senior system electrical engineer and a former vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch, as well as OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC and io Products.

"This case is about Apple's former employees stealing Apple's trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI," the filing says. "Apple brings this suit to put a stop to it."

What do we know about the lawsuit?

The lawsuit is against the two former Apple employees who now work for OpenAI, as well as OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC and io Products.

It was filed in a federal court in California, where both companies have their headquarters.

Apple alleges that one of the defendants failed to return a company-issued work laptop, later using an authentication bug to access its internal network and download "dozens of Apple's confidential hardware-related files."

The other defendant, Apple claims, had been emailing himself information about Apple suppliers and internal industry summaries before his departure from the company.

"At every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple's trade secrets and confidential information," Apple said in the 41-page complaint.

Apple and OpenAI, from collaborators to competitors

The lawsuit dramatically escalates tensions between the two tech giants for months, after years of cooperation that saw Apple allowing its users to access ChatGPT results through Siri, giving iPhone users the option to sign up for ChatGPT memberships directly from the iOS settings menu.

Last year, OpenAI bought hardware startup io Products, founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, as it aims to move beyond software and into consumer hardware.

OpenAI has never clearly specified what type of device it is building, only describing it as an effort to find a new way of interacting with AI that goes beyond "traditional products and interfaces."

Edited by: Sean Sinico

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