"Don't Delete Messenger Records": 40 Former Employees Receive Fear-Inducing Warning Letters from Their Ex-Employer
Apple Sends Warning Letters to Former Employees Now at OpenAI
"Demands Preservation of Documents, Emails, and Messenger Chats"
Major Lawsuit Filed Against Former Senior Executives Who Moved to OpenAI
Apple has sent legal warning letters to dozens of former employees who have moved to OpenAI.
On July 17 (local time), the British daily Financial Times (FT), citing multiple sources, reported that Apple sent legal warning letters to about 40 of its former employees who are currently working at OpenAI. This was not merely a warning, but a demand to preserve evidence related to an ongoing lawsuit.
Apple demanded that the former employees who received the warning letters preserve all work-related documents, emails, and messenger communications, instructing them not to delete any communication records. It has also been reported that Apple has requested interviews with some of these employees through its legal team.
This action came just days after Apple filed a major lawsuit against OpenAI and two former Apple executives who moved to OpenAI.
In the complaint, Apple claimed that executives who had worked at the company for 24 years had stolen internal confidential information before moving to OpenAI. However, OpenAI has completely denied the allegations, countering that it neither wanted nor used any competitor's confidential information.
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This conflict has come to a head at a sensitive time, as OpenAI, in partnership with Apple's former Chief Design Officer (CDO), is intensifying efforts to develop its own artificial intelligence (AI) hardware device. In court documents, Apple asserted that the evidence included in the lawsuit was merely "the tip of the iceberg" regarding OpenAI's broad misappropriation of trade secrets. In response, OpenAI stated, "We are taking these allegations seriously, but we are unaware of any evidence that provides reasonable grounds for this lawsuit."
The FT evaluated this action as an example demonstrating the escalation of legal disputes between Apple and OpenAI, two of Silicon Valley's leading companies, amid intensifying AI hardware competition. Until 2024, the two companies had maintained a strong relationship, with Apple planning to integrate the ChatGPT model into its newly launched 'Apple Intelligence.' Craig Federighi, Apple's Vice President, even introduced OpenAI as a "pioneer and market leader" at the time during an Apple event. However, Apple later selected Google's "Gemini" as the AI model to be used for its voice assistant "Siri," and as OpenAI acquired io, the relationship between the two companies rapidly deteriorated.
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