Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

9to5mac.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 1001 posts

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#151

Post by khurs »

Aurornis wrote: post #124
joshstrange wrote: post #2

Some pretty damning stuff: > OpenAI also instructs new hires on how to avoid scrutiny when they leave Apple. For example, Mr. Tan warns them not to tell Apple that they have taken jobs at OpenAI, so they can stay at Apple as long as they can. > Apple says it discovered a pattern of OpenAI recruits emailing themselves confidential information when leaving Apple, including Tan. > OpenAI apparently used confidential App…

It gets even worse. The person not only kept the laptop and used an exploit to download confidential Apple documents, they bragged about it to a contact who was still working at Apple who was also feeding him information: > Liu allegedly kept an Apple-issued laptop after departing the company and exploited a vulnerability to download dozens of confidential Apple documents while he was working at OpenAI. He also maint…

"Whenever I leave a company I make sure..."

But its also that companies responsibility to ensure that the employer doesn't take anything.

Apple know how to use MDM on Apple laptops, why wasn't the device locked and located.

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#152

Post by joe_mamba »

Aurornis wrote: post #124
joshstrange wrote: post #2

Some pretty damning stuff: > OpenAI also instructs new hires on how to avoid scrutiny when they leave Apple. For example, Mr. Tan warns them not to tell Apple that they have taken jobs at OpenAI, so they can stay at Apple as long as they can. > Apple says it discovered a pattern of OpenAI recruits emailing themselves confidential information when leaving Apple, including Tan. > OpenAI apparently used confidential App…

It gets even worse. The person not only kept the laptop and used an exploit to download confidential Apple documents, they bragged about it to a contact who was still working at Apple who was also feeding him information: > Liu allegedly kept an Apple-issued laptop after departing the company and exploited a vulnerability to download dozens of confidential Apple documents while he was working at OpenAI. He also maint…

>Whenever I leave a company I make sure everything that belongs to the company goes back to them

Because you're probably come from a high trust culture where you've been taught reciprocal trust, responsibility and accountability, but there's people coming from low trust environments where exploiting loopholes and scamming everyone outside their inner circle is the norm, and it's the way they learned to get ahead in life, from school all the way to work and business.

They're brazen because they've never been caught or suffered consequences for their actions.

This isn't something you can screen for in a classic job interview.

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#154

Post by woadwarrior01 »

kridsdale1 wrote: post #61
generj wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s even more ridiculous when choosing to do it Apple. It’s hard to think of a company with more legal resources and which is more protective of its hardware IP.

And vindictiveness. Steve declared thermonuclear war on Google because Android re-skinned to use BUTTONS.

> because Android re-skinned to use BUTTONS.

No. Steve's rage was justified, IMO. It was because Eric Schmidt was on Apple's board while simultaneously being Google's CEO and Google was surreptitiously building Android at the time. Mother of all conflict of interests.

There was a recent story that reminded me of it. Mike Krieger was on Figma's board and Anthropic's CPO, while Anthropic was surreptitiously building Claude Design.

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#155

Post by [deleted] »

paxys wrote: post #121
ErneX wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t the first time something like this happens and I always wonder how are these seemingly smart people earning good money so dumb.

Intelligence is domain-specific. People who have put too many skill points in technical knowledge often have none left for common sense and street-smarts.

[deleted]

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#156

Post by ipdashc »

ErneX wrote: post #9
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right? Just straight up documentation with no shame: From an Axios article on this > Liu celebrated the exploit, according to the filing. "LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny," he said in a message to a former colleague who was still employed by Apple. https://www.axios.com/2026/07/10/apple-sues-openai-trade-sec...

Appalling.

Meh. It's one megacorp stealing stuff from another megacorp, hardly "appalling", who cares. I'd probably react the same way; I just wouldn't leak it to my next employer, that's dumb.

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#158

Post by dataviz1000 »

mannanj wrote: post #119
Robdel12 wrote: post #70

OpenAI is about to get ROCKED on this. From this report, this looks open and shut. Apple has basically infinite money and incredible lawyers. Not sure what OpenAI can counter with unless they have clear, hard evidence this hasn’t been happening.

Is there any other AI company with as much controversy as this company? - ~murdered~ (dead) employee who's mother is on a anti-sam hate campaign - ceo fired then coup's his way back into the company - conflict of interest with Microsoft Despite Anthropic's bad press, they haven't been as dishonest as this company.

> ceo fired then coup's his way back into the company

Are we discussing Steve Jobs in 1985?

Any time there is that much money and power involved there is going to be intense drama.

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#159

Post by sashank_1509 »

Hot take, but Apple has done the same and worse to many other companies when they could. Of course Apple can sue and they will probably settle some amount with OpenAI, but acting like this is not commonplace in today’s business environment, and OpenAI is uniquely worse at stealing corporate secrets is laughable. Especially considering Apple’s famous history!

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#160

Post by ungreased0675 »

saghm wrote: post #132
joshstrange wrote: post #2

Some pretty damning stuff: > OpenAI also instructs new hires on how to avoid scrutiny when they leave Apple. For example, Mr. Tan warns them not to tell Apple that they have taken jobs at OpenAI, so they can stay at Apple as long as they can. > Apple says it discovered a pattern of OpenAI recruits emailing themselves confidential information when leaving Apple, including Tan. > OpenAI apparently used confidential App…

The crucial part of why non-competes are gross is that they're trying to enforce what you do after someone stopped receiving anything from the past employer . If someone is helping competitors when still working somewhere, or actively taking stuff from their past employer after they've left, then yeah, of course that's dumb and should be punished. But there's no reason a non-compete clause is needed for that!

Theft of trade secrets and a non-compete are unrelated and separate things.
Post reply on HN