In its lawsuit against OpenAI, Apple has presented what it describes as "shocking evidence" to support its claims that former employees stole trade secrets for OpenAI's benefit. These new details came to light after the legal team for Chang Liu—a former Apple employee now working at OpenAI—handed over Liu’s old Apple work laptop for inspection earlier this month. Apple now alleges that Liu used a confidential Apple circuit schematic in his work at OpenAI, along with a tool that shares its name with an internal Apple engineering application.

Apple asserts that OpenAI was fully aware of Liu’s access to Apple data, and that Liu recruited an OpenAI colleague, Yu-Ting Peng, to help destroy evidence in June when he learned Apple was investigating him. "The MacBook represents the very limited information Defendants provided so far (and only after weeks of delay), and shows Apple is not conducting 'fishing expeditions' but that its trade secrets are being used and evidence is being destroyed," the filing states.

While the new evidence is redacted from public view, earlier Apple filings have included text messages from Liu—punctuated with "crying laughing" emojis—showing he was aware he still had access to Apple files. OpenAI has previously defended Liu, saying he only accessed Apple files after leaving the company to assist former colleagues who requested his help. In a blog post earlier this month, OpenAI wrote: "Apple now tries to shift the blame to 'residual access,' but they also don’t disclose that this is a common issue with Apple which is caused by them failing to properly manage system access when people leave."

Apple, however, claims Liu maintained access by "exploiting a rare, previously unknown authentication bug." The company is now seeking a preliminary injunction—a court order that would block OpenAI from working on hardware based on Apple’s technology while the case is ongoing—as well as expedited discovery, a fast-tracked process for gathering evidence, since Apple alleges that more former employees may also be implicated. According to Apple’s initial filing, over 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI.