OpenAI is asking a U.S. federal judge to dismiss Apple's lawsuit alleging trade secret theft, stating that Apple's claims are baseless and lack sufficient investigation. In court documents submitted late on Wednesday, OpenAI's lawyers stated that Apple's complaint is based on selectively quoted communications and ordinary actions taken out of context, and directly said, "To quote Apple's own words, this lawsuit is a mess." OpenAI emphasized that Apple should not be allowed to use a lawsuit based on false reasons to make up for its shortcomings in the talent market.
According to OpenAI's argument, its top hardware executives followed industry-standard hiring practices when interviewing Apple employees, without any improper conduct. The employee accused of stealing trade secrets was actually trying to help a former Apple colleague. OpenAI believes that Apple rushed to file the lawsuit without adequate investigation, wrongly characterizing normal recruitment and talent movement as espionage, which is neither factual nor legally supported. This response marks an escalation in the legal conflict between the two tech giants, with the core dispute expanding from whether secrets were stolen to the legal boundaries of talent competition.
The Battle for Talent Turns into Legal Conflict
Just a day earlier, Apple had already requested the judge to issue an injunction to prevent OpenAI from continuing to use what it claims are stolen trade secrets and to return all of Apple's confidential information. If approved, this injunction would remain in effect during the trial, meaning OpenAI's related R&D work might be forced to stop. Apple's move clearly aims to use legal means to curb OpenAI's rapid expansion in the hardware field, especially as the latter is actively recruiting chip and hardware engineering talent to support its self-developed AI chip plan.
This lawsuit reflects the increasingly fierce competition for talent between the AI industry and traditional hardware giants. As OpenAI transitions from a pure software company to a full-stack technology company, its strong demand for hardware talent has inevitably led to direct confrontation with companies like Apple and Google in the job market. Apple chose to respond to talent loss through legal means, while OpenAI portrayed it as a panic move by competitors. Regardless of whether the lawsuit is ultimately dismissed, this case will set important boundaries for talent mobility and trade secret protection in the technology industry, with impacts far beyond the dispute between the two companies themselves.
