Recently, Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, formally accusing OpenAI of stealing trade secrets. This legal battle between tech giants centers on a former employee suspected of exploiting system vulnerabilities to access Apple's internal sensitive data.
According to Apple's complaint, the main figure in the case is Chang Liu, a former systems electrical engineer. After leaving Apple and joining OpenAI, Liu is accused of using his lingering access privileges to illegally intrude into Apple's internal shared network. Apple stated in the lawsuit that Liu exploited an undetected "zero-day vulnerability" to bypass the company's authentication mechanism, thereby accessing a large number of confidential documents within the company's internal network.
Apple disclosed that this vulnerability was an extremely rare authentication error. Although server logs indicated that the vulnerability could theoretically affect a small number of users, there is solid evidence showing that only Liu used this vulnerability to steal company secrets. According to the information, within weeks of joining OpenAI, Liu stole dozens of confidential documents related to Apple hardware, including detailed information about unreleased products, engineering presentations, technical specifications, and various proprietary project data.
More seriously, Apple accuses Liu of not returning his work notebook after leaving, but also misusing the office computer permissions of another current employee for illegal operations. Records show that after discovering he could still remotely access the company network, Liu sent a message to a colleague jokingly saying "I can still access." Apple believes that as a former employee, Liu did not fulfill his obligation to report the vulnerability, but instead used the company's core assets as a tool for illegal gain.
Currently, Apple has requested a jury trial, and the case is expected to be heard this year. In response to these allegations, OpenAI previously publicly stated that the company has "no interest" in acquiring other companies' trade secrets. As this lawsuit progresses, this case of commercial espionage caused by a former employee's misconduct may have a profound impact on the relationship between the two companies and the development progress of AI hardware.
