Apple alleges OpenAI employee accessed circuit plans after joining startup

Apple has filed a new document in its ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI, revealing "shocking evidence" from an ex-employee's MacBook. The company continues to push for expedited discovery in the case, which began in July accusing former engineers of stealing trade secrets for OpenAI. Apple filed for a preliminary injunction and expedited discovery last week.

Chang Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer at Apple who left for OpenAI in January, is one of the parties named in the lawsuit. Apple argues that Liu used a security bug to download confidential engineering files after leaving the company. The lawsuit alleges that Liu's MacBook revealed that he ran a simulation using a circuit schematic file and that his "AI agent" learned to run LTspice and review the results.

Apple claims that feeding trade secret information into an AI agent or model could create irreversible and continually propagating uses of the trade secret. Their argument suggests that defendants overlooked this evidence and instead focused on disproving its validity. The filing emphasizes that the MacBook represents limited information provided by the defendants, and its use and destruction of evidence supports Apple's request for expedited discovery.