{"id":555319,"date":"2026-07-18T01:35:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T01:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/555319\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T01:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T01:35:15","slug":"apple-targets-dozens-of-openai-employees-with-legal-letters-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/555319\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple targets dozens of OpenAI employees with legal letters \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple<\/a> has targeted dozens of OpenAI<\/a> employees who once worked for the company with personal legal warnings as it looks for evidence to support its claims that the ChatGPT<\/a> maker stole its trade secrets.<\/p>\n

About 40 former employees now working at OpenAI have been sent letters directing them to preserve documents and communications and demanding meetings with Apple\u2019s lawyers, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

Apple and OpenAI declined to comment. <\/p>\n

The decision to hit employees with personal legal letters highlights Apple\u2019s aggressive tactics after it last week launched a blockbuster lawsuit accusing OpenAI and two employees of stealing secret hardware plans.<\/p>\n

The clash comes as the ChatGPT maker is working with the smartphone giant\u2019s ex-chief designer to develop its own devices.<\/p>\n

Apple claimed in its court filings that the evidence it had included was the \u201ctip of the iceberg\u201d regarding the alleged conduct by OpenAI. The artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI) lab has said that while it takes the allegations seriously, it is not aware of \u201cany evidence that the complaint has merit\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Will the State\u2019s plan for the Carlton Cinema site revitalise O\u2019Connell Street?<\/p>\n

OpenAI said it had \u201cno interest\u201d in other companies\u2019 trade secrets.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit marked a spectacular breakdown in the relationship between two of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, creating a major legal problem for the start-up as it prepares for its highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO).<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Apple sues OpenAI and two former employees for alleged theft of trade secretsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s lawsuit claims that OpenAI\u2019s entire hardware business is compromised by misappropriated trade secrets, creating legal complications for its plans to launch its own family of AI devices.<\/p>\n

The two companies have previously worked together to integrate OpenAI\u2019s technology into its voice assistant Siri. But Apple has since partnered with Google on its latest features, using its models as the foundation for its ChatGPT-like voice and text assistant unveiled in June.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit filed last Friday names only two individuals, including a top Apple device designer, now OpenAI\u2019s head of hardware. It does not name OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman<\/a> or Jony Ive<\/a>, former design chief at Apple, who joined the company last year when the ChatGPT maker bought his design studio IO Products for $6.4 billion (\u20ac5.6 billion). <\/p>\n

But in a sign of just how broad and combative the legal fight could become, shortly after filing the lawsuit Apple\u2019s lawyers sent a barrage of individual letters to about 10 per cent of the 400 former employees who now work at OpenAI, the people said.<\/p>\n

OpenAI\u2019s first device is expected to be a portable, palm-sized gadget for the home, similar to a smart speaker. The design does not include a screen but will incorporate a microphone and cameras that allow it to take audio and visual cues from the environment. <\/p>\n

The device will support an AI assistant that can draw on a user\u2019s personal data and daily interactions, according to people familiar with the company\u2019s plans. Even before the Apple lawsuit was filed, OpenAI did not expect to start shipping the device this year.<\/p>\n

OpenAI had wrestled with challenges around the personality of the assistant that balances its helpfulness with potential obtrusiveness, it was reported last year. It has also grappled with privacy concerns and the difficulty of finding chips powerful enough to run OpenAI\u2019s models on a mass-consumer device. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple has targeted dozens of OpenAI employees who once worked for the company with personal legal warnings as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,936,218,219,2670,61,60,43133,1225,7689,80],"class_list":["post-555319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-apple","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-chatgpt","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jony-ive","tag-open-ai","tag-sam-altman","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}