Apple has filed a new document in its ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI as it continues to push for expedited discovery. In today’s filing, Apple says that it has new “shocking evidence” based on early forensic inspection of a laptop used by former engineer Chang Liu.
Apple first filed the lawsuit in July, accusing ex-employees of stealing trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI. It moved for a preliminary injunction a few weeks later, while also asking the court to expedite discovery, including early document production and depositions of key OpenAI employees and executives. Apple again emphasized the need for expedited discovery last week. OpenAI has called for dismissal.
As covered before, Chang Liu is one of the parties named in Apple’s lawsuit. Liu was a senior system electrical engineer at Apple who left the company for OpenAI in January. The lawsuit alleges that Liu exploited a security bug to download confidential engineering files after leaving.
In today’s filing, Apple says that Liu’s lawyers recently handed over his MacBook that he used after leaving Apple. According to Apple, an “initial forensic analysis” of that MacBook revealed four things, quoted from Apple’s filing:
- Mr. Liu not only downloaded a confidential Apple circuit schematic but also used it in his work at OpenAI;
- Far from his unauthorized access to Apple’s third-party cloud storage being unknown to him, Mr. Liu and others at OpenAI were well-aware of that access;
- Mr. Liu, upon learning of Apple’s internal investigation of him, sent instructions for destroying evidence to an OpenAI colleague who confirmed she would comply; and
- Mr. Liu used a tool in his work at OpenAI that has the same name as an internal Apple engineering application used for Apple development work.
Apple alleges that Liu ran a simulation in March using the circuit schematic file in LTspice, an electrical engineering tool. In messages from around that time, Liu said his AI “agent” learned to run LTspice and review the results.
Apple argues that when trade secret information is fed into an AI agent or model that learns from it, that learning “may create irreversible and continually propagating uses of the trade secret.”
Apple says the defendants decided not to inspect the laptop and instead chose to “advance theories that the device’s data disproves.”
Additionally, Apple learned about Liu’s use of the schematic because he used it on a Mac mini which later synced via iCloud to the MacBook he took from Apple. Apple now also wants access to that Mac mini.
This “shocking evidence” is yet another point in favor of expedited discovery in the case, Apple says:
“This shocking evidence—which Defendants chose to ignore despite its availability—demonstrates why Apple urgently needs expedited discovery. The MacBook represents the very limited information Defendants provided so far (and only after weeks of delay), and shows Apple is not conducting ‘fishing expeditions’ but that its trade secrets are being used and evidence is being destroyed.”
You can read the full filing below or via this link.
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