New evidence shows OpenAI's trade secret theft & destruction of evidence, says Apple

Apple has been urging the court to require expedited discovery, and information discovered on Chang Liu's work MacBook suggests OpenAI is actively destroying evidence.

OpenAI poached over 400 employees from Apple to work on AI projects, and two were called out in a trade secret theft lawsuit in July. Apple has suggested the case needs urgent attention, and that every delay causes more harm.

According to a new filing from Apple on Monday, the MacBook used by Chang Liu has a lot of evidence that has allegedly been ignored by defendants so far. OpenAI has been pushing back on Apple's attempts for expedited discovery, which Apple now asserts could be due to an active attempt to destroy evidence.

Apple's primary talking points in the latest filing show that the work MacBook that has only recently been handed over by Liu has mountains of evidence. It allegedly reveals Liu's actions to gather confidential data, knowingly, while performing work on the laptop at OpenAI.

Here are all of the main points of the filing based on what was allegedly discovered on the MacBook:

• A confidential Apple circuit schematic was downloaded and used in work at OpenAI
• OpenAI employees were allegedly aware of Liu's access to Apple's third-party cloud storage
• When Liu discovered he was being investigated by Apple, he allegedly sent instructions to an OpenAI colleague who confirmed they would destroy evidence
• A tool in use by Liu at OpenAI used the same name as an internal Apple engineering application used for development work

Apple says that this data is available on the MacBook and has been ignored by the defendants so far. Instead, OpenAI continues to suggest that Apple has filed the lawsuit only to stifle competition and that OpenAI has no need for other companies' trade secrets.

With this evidence in hand, Apple is urging the courts to force expedited discovery. The fear is that crucial evidence of exactly what secrets were stolen could disappear even if OpenAI is found liable.

This is an ongoing lawsuit, so expect counter-filings and rebuttals until something is resolved or the heat death of the universe. I'm betting on the latter at the moment.