📰 Key Takeaways

In its lawsuit against OpenAI, Apple has submitted new “shocking evidence” to bolster its allegations that a former employee stole trade secrets to help OpenAI. This new material surfaced after former Apple employee Chang Liu, now at OpenAI, had his lawyers turn over his old Apple work laptop earlier this month. Apple alleges that while working at OpenAI, Liu used a confidential Apple circuit schematic, along with a tool sharing the same name as an internal Apple engineering application. Apple also claims that OpenAI was “fully aware” that Liu had access to Apple data, and that after learning in June that Apple had launched an investigation, Liu enlisted OpenAI colleague Yu-Ting Peng to help destroy evidence. In its filing, Apple said the laptop represents extremely limited information that the defendants only provided “after weeks of delay,” showing that Apple isn’t conducting a “fishing expedition” but that trade secrets really were used and evidence really was destroyed. Earlier court filings also revealed text messages from Liu, including a “laughing through tears” emoji, suggesting he was well aware he could still access Apple files. OpenAI previously defended Liu, saying he only accessed Apple files after leaving the company, at the request of a former colleague, and argued that Apple was pinning the blame on a “residual access” problem — one that’s actually a common failure on Apple’s own part to properly manage system access when employees leave. But Apple countered that Liu was able to keep accessing its systems because he “exploited a rare, previously unknown authentication vulnerability.” Apple is now seeking a preliminary injunction to have the court block OpenAI from continuing to develop hardware products based on Apple technology while the case is being tried, and is also pushing to speed up discovery, since its allegations may implicate even more former Apple employees. According to Apple’s original complaint, more than 400 former Apple employees currently work at OpenAI.

💬 JudyAI Lab Take

The Apple-OpenAI lawsuit just got another piece of evidence — this time, an old work laptop handed over by former employee Chang Liu, containing a confidential circuit schematic and an internally-named tool, making the “departing employee walked off with trade secrets” allegation a lot more concrete.

This case highlights a structural risk that comes with the breakneck pace of AI talent movement: when an engineer takes deep familiarity with a former employer’s system architecture, internal tools, and even authentication mechanisms to a new job, “residual access” stops being just an IT oversight and can become an actual data leakage channel. Apple claims there was a “previously unknown authentication vulnerability”; OpenAI says it’s really Apple’s own access management that fell short. Both sides have their own story, but for AI builders, this is a reminder that as teams scale fast, real-time revocation and auditing of access permissions matter just as much as product development itself. The fact that more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI also shows just how much bigger this talent flow is than most people assume.

Worth taking a fresh look at how rigorously your own offboarding process handles access revocation and device recovery.

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