OpenAI asks judge to dismiss Apple trade secrets lawsuit

OpenAI has asked a US federal judge to throw out Apple's lawsuit accusing the ChatGPT maker and two former Apple employees of misappropriating trade secrets to power its push into consumer hardware.

The motion, filed on Wednesday, argues Apple's case has no legal grounding.

In court papers, OpenAI's lawyers wrote that the company has no use for Apple's proprietary information, insisting it is building products unlike anything in Apple's lineup.

They said OpenAI's real interest lies in recruiting top engineers and developers, many of whom have chosen to leave Apple for what the filing called more exciting work.

Apple filed the lawsuit against OpenAI in July, accusing it of illegally taking their confidential information through former employees, recruiting practices, and supply chain connections.

However, in its motion, OpenAI attacks the internal policies of the plaintiff, asserting that it confused personal and professional information, as Apple was promoting the usage of iCloud for work-related purposes among its staff members.

Apple, the filing says, can't use its own IT policy failings as evidence of employees' theft when those employees did not even know what information could be accessed.

The document is built around Apple's deficiencies, with over 50 repetitions of the word "fail" in 31 pages of the motion, suggesting that the lawsuit is merely compensation for Apple's difficulties in keeping up with AI technologies and attracting employees.

At the same time, Apple has been pursuing a preliminary injunction to prevent OpenAI from using the disputed information during the legal process, which has been denied by OpenAI.