{"text":[[{"start":8.92,"text":"An OpenAI employee sent Apple more than a hundred “highly confidential files” about its plans to launch AI devices, the ChatGPT maker claimed in a court filing on Wednesday, in the latest revelation over a bitter dispute between the two tech giants over the alleged theft of trade secrets."}],[{"start":28.04,"text":"The filing came hours before the two companies faced off in a California court over the iPhone maker’s blockbuster legal case claiming the AI start-up stole confidential information about its own devices."}],[{"start":40.8,"text":"“Based on a recent and ongoing forensic investigation arising from this lawsuit, OpenAI has learned that a former OpenAI employee . . . sent over a hundred highly confidential files about at least one unreleased OpenAI device under development to his personal accounts,” OpenAI said in the new filing."}],[{"start":59.36,"text":"The dispute began in July when Apple sued OpenAI claiming that the company and two former Apple employees, including the start-up’s now chief hardware officer Tang Tan, stole trade secrets including confidential product designs and proprietary information about its manufacturing processes."}],[{"start":77.28,"text":"OpenAI says its latest findings may form a countersuit against the iPhone maker. The employee joined the AI lab from Apple, worked for the ChatGPT maker for six months and was now back at Apple, Wednesday’s filing said."}],[{"start":91.04,"text":"OpenAI says the files sent to the employee’s personal account include images of the unreleased device or devices, as well as supplier information and other hardware details."}],[{"start":101.2,"text":"Apple claimed the filing was an attempt to distract from its own case and that it had not found any of the alleged files on its system. It said OpenAI had failed to respond to its request for more information that would aid its investigation."}],[{"start":114.72,"text":"Hundreds of former Apple employees have joined OpenAI, which is developing a new personal AI device. The ChatGPT creator acquired io, the hardware start-up founded by former Apple design chief Sir Jony Ive, for $6.4bn in 2025."}],[{"start":131.4,"text":"Part of the case revolves around whether former Apple engineer Chang Liu deliberately accessed confidential Apple files after leaving for OpenAI, or whether it was the benign result of a confused “offboarding” process by the iPhone maker that mixed up employees’ private and work accounts and devices."}],[{"start":147.5,"text":"Liu’s lawyer told the judge that one alleged instance of him accessing specific Apple files may actually have been a personal AI agent, an autonomous bot he had tasked with helping with a home redecoration project, crawling “all over the computer”."}],[{"start":161.88,"text":"OpenAI argues the iPhone maker filed a baseless lawsuit in order to discourage its employees from leaving and has misrepresented legitimate communications and hiring practices for employees it poached from Apple. Ive, who left Apple in 2019, is not named as a defendant in Apple’s lawsuit."}],[{"start":180.34,"text":"At Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Edward Davila said he was eager to take the case to trial in June or July — potentially less than a year after Apple filed the complaint. OpenAI is expected to launch its first AI device, which the iPhone maker alleges may contain its trade secrets, sometime next year."}],[{"start":198.02,"text":"Apple had asked the judge to impose an injunction on OpenAI using its trade secret or concealing evidence, but the two sides on Wednesday reached an agreement that avoided the need for one. OpenAI, meanwhile, is asking for the lawsuit to be thrown out."}],[{"start":212.8,"text":"The AI lab’s move to compete head to head with Apple in the consumer hardware market has complicated the relationship between the two companies. Apple this year partnered with Google to support its latest AI features."}],[{"start":224.8,"text":"The legal battle with the $4.9tn tech company comes as OpenAI prepares for a potential public listing as soon as next year. The start-up is in the middle of a separate legal and regulatory backlash over a growing list of hacking and safety incidents involving its products."}],[{"start":241.68,"text":"Apple has meanwhile faced a faltering start with its own AI launch, with years of delays to its upgraded Siri voice assistant, which rolled out in beta last month but remains unavailable in the EU because of a regulatory stand-off."}],[{"start":255.12,"text":"The iPhone maker has sent legal warning letters to dozens of its former employees now at OpenAI, the FT previously reported."}],[{"start":262.56,"text":"It emerged on Wednesday that Apple has since drawn up a list of 14 top-priority OpenAI employees whose communications it wants to see first. “We sent them a list of 14 names, let’s start there,” Apple’s lawyer said."}],[{"start":279.56,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792032607_2988.mp3"}