OpenAI Hits Back at Apple With iMessages, Emails
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- OpenAI published a blog post titled "Apple is getting this wrong," rejecting Apple's claims that former Apple staff brought confidential information to OpenAI and disputing Apple's account of pre-lawsuit contacts.
- OpenAI shared iMessages and emails as public evidence, asserting in a Moneycontrol-cited statement that it "do[es] not have, nor want, any of Apple's trade secrets."
- Apple filed for a preliminary injunction asking a US judge to bar two former employees and OpenAI from accessing, acquiring, using, or disclosing confidential information (Reuters).
- Digital Trends and multiple X commentators flagged that Apple's counsel reportedly sent the pre-lawsuit notice to the wrong email after mixing up two Asian last names — a detail that reverberated across Hacker News and Reddit threads.
- Apple's internal policy of requiring employees to use personal iCloud accounts for work was cited by X commentator James Titcomb and others as a likely root cause of the disclosure dispute.
- MacTech.com framed the situation as Apple having "made it really easy" for former employees to access secret info, shifting responsibility away from OpenAI in its headline.
Why it matters: OpenAI's choice to release iMessages and emails directly to the public — rather than limit its defense to court filings — turns a trade-secrets lawsuit into a reputational battle Apple now has to fight on OpenAI's chosen terrain. The wrong-recipient email and the personal-iCloud policy highlighted by observers undermine the "stolen secrets" framing that underpins Apple's injunction request.
