AIBRIEF
The motion targets OpenAI's AI hardware push and seeks expedited discovery from the lab, an affiliated foundation, the io hardware startup, and two named former Apple employees.
Apple asked a court to freeze OpenAI's AI hardware program, escalating its trade-secret lawsuit from damages claims to a procedural move that could halt the program before any finding of fact, according to a report on the filing.
In the motion, Apple requested a preliminary injunction, a court order that would pause OpenAI's AI hardware development while the underlying trade-secret case proceeds. Apple also asked for expedited discovery, a fast-tracked evidence-gathering process, against OpenAI, an OpenAI-affiliated foundation, the AI hardware startup io, and two named former Apple employees now at OpenAI: Tang Yew Tan and Chang Liu.
The filing alleges that the two former employees and as many as eleven others may have taken confidential Apple information when they left. Several of those employees later contacted Apple to return company-issued devices they had kept, the report says. Apple says it has found new evidence in its court papers supporting the allegations; the claims have not been proven in court.
OpenAI has pushed back. The lab published a blog post with internal messages and emails disputing Apple's account, calling the injunction request "unnecessary" and the underlying claims "factually incorrect." Apple's preliminary-injunction filing is on the court docket.
io, the AI hardware startup where OpenAI's former Apple hires now work, sits at the center of the dispute. The court has not ruled on Apple's motion.