OpenAI vows not to use trade secrets allegedly taken from Apple

By Annelise Levy, Mark Gurman, and Georgia Fearn, Bloomberg News OpenAI agreed not to use trade secrets that Apple Inc. claims were stolen by employees who defected from the iPhone maker to the artificial intelligence startup while a legal fight between the companies plays out. The ChatGPT maker made the voluntary concession during a court hearing Wednesday in which a federal judge said he was “highly likely” to side with Apple and issue an injunction against OpenAI. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila will have the power to enforce the agreement, which also requires OpenAI to collect forensic images of 14 employees’ devices that may contain Apple’s confidential information. For OpenAI, the agreement avoids the stain of an outright loss in its first substantive court showdown with Apple. The startup headed by Sam Altman was accused by Apple in a July lawsuit of scheming to steal intellectual property related to upcoming products and use that information to bolster its work on competing f