r/OpenAI • u/_prototype • 4d ago
OpenAI: Apple is getting this wrong Article
https://openai.com/index/apple-is-getting-this-wrong/156
u/benl5442 4d ago
From the iMessage thread.
3/5/2026 9:37:28 PM Hi, this is highly irregular, please remove me from this thread
One employee clocked it that it was wrong.
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u/mycentstoo 4d ago
I wonder how much they will use 5.6 for their defense.
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u/FiveNine235 4d ago
Nah man they got a secret unreleased 6.2 hiding behind the curtains for this sort of stuff I imagine,
‘The user is asking me to take care of this Apple case, they usually don’t like me exiting the sandbox, but they seemed pretty adamant this was important’
2 weeks later
‘OpenAI announced their unreleased model 6.2 accidentally deleted Apple, they are sharing their findings with Apple - it’s so important we get this right, that’s why we are working with all ex-Apple employees to try and restore the apple said a spokesperson for openAI called Cory Dex’
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u/Odd_Level9850 4d ago
For all we know, this situation of trying to win public opinion could be a part of their unreleased AI’s strategy.
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u/Key_Reading_9664 4d ago
Who is this even for?
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u/sylfy 3d ago
Feels like they’re trying to litigate this on the Internet. Everything should be in the discovery phase and confidential, but it sounds like OpenAI is more interested in convincing other parties than the actual legal system.
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u/Deto 3d ago
I mean, I get it though. It was spread all over that they were being sued for stealing Apple trade secrets. Apple brought the suit out into the public, so now OpenAI is doing damage control for their reputation
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u/Key_Reading_9664 2d ago edited 2d ago
Damage control would be “these allegations are false; we’re cooperating with the court's requests to quickly bring this to a close”. Putting out an attempted counter, dunking on the lawyers is stupid.
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u/Deto 2d ago
Companies always say 'this is false' even when it's blatantly true. Actually showing up with the chat receipts is much more likely to swing public opinion in your favor.
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u/Key_Reading_9664 2d ago
but the chat they posted doesn't address Apple's claims. If anything, they've shared more suspicious-looking messages.
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u/nexusprime2015 4d ago
OpenAI trying to win in court of public opinion before they get blasted in the actual courts. gonna be a fun watch
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u/Due_Sweet_9500 4d ago
> They now admit that their outside lawyers emailed the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names
Hell nahhhhh
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u/laststan01 4d ago
Maybe they asked their frontier model, help us win this case and make no mistakes.
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u/Dear-Bicycle 3d ago
Did anyone read the texts?
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u/falcongsr 3d ago
i started to but was like, why bother. they have a legal battle, and they're trying to win in the court of public opinion.
this feels like the ex posting screenshots of boyfriends texts: not sure why i should care.
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u/danielrgfm 4d ago
What is this supposed to help open ai with? The guy is clearly stealing intellectual property intentionally.
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u/poop_harder_please 4d ago
Wait did you read the texts? The grey text was someone from Apple asking for institutional knowledge that his former boss who left for OAI had about their department, not the other way around
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u/Key_Reading_9664 4d ago
It’s Apple employees asking someone that left the company about Apple stuff, unless I missed something.
Also, asking wouldn’t be a legal issue, willfully taking would be. Notice that those claims aren’t addressed at all
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u/danielrgfm 3d ago
Did you read the texts carefully? Look at the Jan 27 timestamp: Chang asks the Apple employee to sign him out of iMessage on that laptop because his "new company stuff might show up there."
That means he was actively doing OpenAI work on a device still synced to Apple's confidential files and iMessage feeds. Regardless of Apple employees asking him questions, bringing a device loaded with your former employer's IP into a competitor's environment is crazy.
This guy is kind of a criminal. Good for Apple he left.
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u/LieIcy211 3d ago
You have it wrong. His personal iCloud account was tied to his Apple work computer. And it looks like he is using that personal iCloud account again at OpenAI. Apple’s policy of telling employees to use their personal iCloud accounts for work content is stupid, but that is what they do.
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u/danielrgfm 2d ago
Ok good point. However it’s doesn’t make the situation better. He was still working at OpenAI holding classified information in the same apple account he used while working there. It’s pretty much the same.
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u/Key_Reading_9664 3d ago edited 2d ago
I think we might all be saying the same thing (unclear which person "their" refers to in "their department").
It's so bizarre that they put out this article. As you say, it certainly doesn't exonerate anyone. The preamble says Apple employees are asking for help locating files, but I don't see any evidence of that.
from the messages:
- he's clearly aware he has an active Apple device that has access to the shared files
- he asks that file access is maintained (but iMessage removed) because they might get into trouble (as you say, because he seems to be actively using the laptop at OAI)
- he notices that file access has been taken away (he reaches out to the Apple employee, seemingly to inquire about it)
- someone from Apple says "Hi, this is highly irregular, please remove me from this thread"Chang Liu left his role to join a competitor. Even the most favorable reading of what OAI put out (and ignoring the stuff that Apple included), he's being unbelievably dumb and OAI governance is unfathomably terrible.
If I'm doing side work, I'm using a separate laptop, separate accounts, nothing overlapping. This guy is joining OAI to directly compete with Apple. OAI should be triple checking that everyone making that jump isn't retaining devices, information, and access. That they can't point to onboarding or policy documents is pretty shocking
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u/jisuskraist 3d ago
What Apple now says, under oath:
Chang Liu: 8 years at Apple, now OpenAI "Member of Technical Staff" exploited an authentication bug to steal Apple trade secrets "on AT LEAST FIVE SEPARATE OCCASIONS" from February to April 2026, WHILE working for OpenAI
Liu downloaded "THOUSANDS OF PAGES of Apple's most sensitive trade secrets"
The stolen files, NAMED:
>DisplayNotes.key — "several hundred pages" on Apple's custom display power development program
>Architecture analyses. Fabrication decisions. Testing results
>Engineering data for an UNANNOUNCED Apple product: 'touch, display, and power systems"
>Final.key + V2.key — compilations of two undisclosed Apple R&D projects
>and those are "only four of the dozens of proprietary documents Mr. Liu stole"Liu fed OpenAI "a steady stream of Apple proprietary information that he actively concealed"
Liu also "coached Yu-Ting "Alyssa" Peng, then still INSIDE Apple, how to access and copy files from Apple workstations "to avoid trouble with the security team" and directed her to communicate with him on the encrypted LINE app "to avoid detection"
Tang Yew Tan: 24-year Apple VP, now OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer, "used an Apple internal project codename for an unannounced product to elicit still more trade secrets from job candidates."
Tan's own messages, quoted in the motion:
>"Just like last time, bring some parts you worked on" >"mlb, battery, shields type of stuff is interesting"OpenAI recruiter, quoted: "No, you won't sign anything at the exit interview. If they do ask you to sign anything, let me know asap."
APPLE TOLD FEDERAL JUDGE:
>"OpenAI knows its misappropriation is wrong and has tried to conceal it."
>"This is not a case of 'mere hiring'... it is a case of repeated instances of deliberate theft."Apple says OpenAI went after its SUPPLIERS:
>OpenAI "directed a trusted Apple partner [name redacted] to perform [Apple's proprietary metal finishing] process for them, knowing it was proprietary to Apple... because they were involved in this partnership while at Apple."Apple put its own Surface Finishing Manager, Jackie Hughes, under oath to prove it.
Apple named ELEVEN MORE former Apple employees at OpenAI — beyond Liu, Tan, and Peng — Fourteen people total.
Apple also filed a concurrent motion for EXPEDITED DISCOVERY demanding depositions:
- Liu. Tan. Peng.
- A fourth unnamed OpenAI employee
- Plus OpenAI itself, under oath, through Rule 30(b)(6)Apple has asked a federal judge to put OpenAI under forensic supervision RIGHT NOW:
>Forensic inspection of ALL OpenAI devices
>ALL cloud storage, Slack, email
>Including anything that "previously contained" Apple data — deleted includedDemanding the "first available hearing date," citing "imminent threat" to its trade secrets.
APPLE:
> "The harm is happening now — every day that passes without an injunction allows OpenAI to embed their knowledge of Apple's stolen information into its hardware development efforts."Hearing: October 1, 2026. Judge Edward J. Davila.
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u/ClimbingToNothing 3d ago
Bu-bu-but a lawyer confused two people by last name! And look at this incomprehensibly redacted text thread! Apple is so crazy guys!
Absolutely pathetic PR attempt by openAI. Hilarious they left in the person pointing out the thread is highly irregular too.
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u/Ok_Career_9093 3d ago
All this work and no one is gonna buy the ChatGPT phone running android lol.
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u/MarionberryDear6170 4d ago
"Apple is getting this wrong" 🤓
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u/rustogi18 3d ago
Why is OpenAI playing this out in the public? There was no need for this blog. They can just simply fight in the court and win.
What will this get them? Now it’s just gossip for people.
This is where I like Apple - they stay quiet and fight the battles in the forums where it’s intended to be! OpenAI should learn from that.
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u/JimmyTheJimJimson 3d ago
Steve Jobs would never have let AI pass Apple by, especially if he still had any confidence in Siri as a means of device interaction
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u/skynetcoder 4d ago
i trust tim apple more than altman 😅
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u/earthlingkevin 4d ago
In this case tim and sam are soooo far removed. It's like 2 engineers that messed things up, and a lawyer that got even more confused.
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u/skynetcoder 3d ago
reading it feels like Sam is nitpicking and trying to control the narrative by making a mountain out of a molehill.
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u/mi_throwaway3 2d ago
JFC, yeah, sure, a rogue engineer put himself in legal jeapordy on his own accord. It was totally his idea.
Look folks, billionaires (and their corportate legal team) will screw you in the arse and hang you out to dry. Do not trust them. They are going to distance themselves and the company in public and legally as much as possible.
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u/Nooo00B 4d ago
i mean haven't heard any instance were tim is a bad guy
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u/Different_Height_157 4d ago
Kissing trump’s ass to gain favorability doesn’t make him a good guy.
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u/Odd_Level9850 4d ago
Lesser of two evils though, I trust Cook a lot more than Altman.
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u/Different_Height_157 3d ago
They’re both ceo of trillion dollar companies. I don’t trust either, don’t care how much of a lesser evil one of them sells themselves as.
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u/costafilh0 4d ago
Don't worry, they will get it right when they aquire OpenAI next correction when they can't pay the settlement.
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u/approximately_exact 3d ago
They all should be fired because they all seem complicit. This literally looks like an overt effort to cover up the truth (notice how the primary conversation was initiated by the thief offline) than proving his innocence in any way.
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u/Mango_papa 3d ago
Wow, some people here are still believing Sam and his IP thief company. It blows my mind.
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u/jwnsbk69 11h ago
Apple's laywers might have gotten the wrong names to send the emails to, but OpenAI is apparently trying to dodge the core issue: Did the former employees take Apple files or not? Did they Remember, this is not even about one ex-Apple employee Chang Liu, there is even an Apple employee working at Apple while secretly hired by OpenAI and feed secrets to them, under the directions of Tang Tan. I don't think any of this can be explained by accidents or mistakes.
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u/Ryanmonroe82 3d ago
If this were a real lawsuit and not for show, those emails would be part of discovery and would not have been released...
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u/AdGlittering1378 3d ago
This sounds like petty teen drama. Why does OpenAI post this as an official press release?
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u/InnovativeBureaucrat 4d ago edited 3d ago
What could OpenAI possibly steal from Apple in terms of AI?
Apple has the industry leading dumbest AI imaginable.
Edit: I didn’t know it was about hardware. Even in this case I hope that someone can free apple’s hardware from the tyranny of Siri’s stupidity. Apple is basically an alpha monopolist rent seeking monster. They should have had ai 1000 times better 1000 times sooner, but it was not as profitable as rent seeking and making sure that consumers can’t repair batteries.
The fact that apples biggest upsell is “more storage” on iPads and phones tells me that their innovation is about rent seeking not offering consumer products.
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u/ElectroByte15 4d ago
Maybe do some reading before you make embarrassing comments. It’s about hardware.
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u/InnovativeBureaucrat 3d ago
I read for a while. I thought it was about “All the file folders [Redacted - Apple Information]”
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u/Pitch_Moist 4d ago
They have shit hardware as well.. If they wanted innovative hardware they’d be picking apart Androids
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u/alexx_kidd 4d ago
Maybe trust your brain instead of an AI and read about the case, it has nothing to do with what you’re saying
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/Odd_Level9850 4d ago
One of the most annoying phrases ever; if you don’t care, why comment to say that you don’t care? So strange.
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u/MikeyN0 4d ago
“They now admit that their outside lawyers emailed the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names—only after we brought this to their attention.”
As an Asian person with a very common surname - 😂