Last week, Apple filed a lawsuit accusing frontier AI lab OpenAI of stealing company secrets. The legal battle may also prevent OpenAI from stealing Apple’s market share. According to a report from Bloomberg, the lawsuit has put OpenAI’s dreams of launching its own devices (with former Apple designer Jony Ive, no less!) in a state of limbo until everything gets sorted out.
Details about OpenAI’s foray into physical devices have been trickling out for what feels like years now, ever since Ive jumped ship. But nothing has materialized from it other than some bold claims that have grown significantly less bold the closer the company has come to actually producing something. For instance, last year, Altman said they’re seeking an ambitious physical form for the device that they’ll know is right “when you want to lick it or take a bite out of it.” Since then, the design description has simplified into what is basically just a screenless smartphone.
By most accounts, the process has not gone particularly well, either. The gossip has suggested that the planned device has taken a number of forms, including everything from AI-infused wireless earbuds to something closer to a pocket-sized, Amazon Echo-like smart speaker. Whatever shape it comes in, it’s been reported that the company has struggled to actually make the thing work. Despite that, it has insisted that it’s on track to reveal the device later this year.
Seems like that’s no longer the case. Per Bloomberg, much of Apple’s case against Altman’s AI startup stems from OpenAI’s ongoing siphoning of talent from Apple’s hardware operation. While we knew a bit about Ive taking some talent with him when he moved over to OpenAI, including the former lead designer for the iPhone and Apple Watch, the lawsuit gives much more detail on just how bad the brain drain got. Apple apparently claims to have had to completely rebuild parts of its design teams because so many people defected to OpenAI. In total, more than 400 former Apple employees are now working under Altman.
It seems Apple believes at least some of those people took trade secrets with them—allegedly with training from OpenAI on how to get those details out of the vault that is Apple headquarters. Because of that, according to Bloomberg, OpenAI’s planned devices are now expected to be the subject of scrutiny to a degree that could delay their release at best and potentially require OpenAI to completely go back to the drawing board and rework the parts of the products that rely on supposedly stolen Apple IP.
Given just how much messy the design process seems to have been and how little clarity we’ve gotten on what exactly OpenAI’s device is or will do, maybe it’s for the best that the company gets a little more time to think things over.