Before Apple Lawsuit, a Growing Unease at iPhone Maker Over OpenAI

In the months ahead of Apple’s lawsuit against OpenAI on Friday, the iPhone maker’s concerns about OpenAI’s plans to compete in consumer hardware have mounted steadily.

For starters, there was the seemingly never-ending stream of Apple employees jumping ship to join the AI startup. As those departures began to reach into the hundreds, Apple scrambled to make counteroffers to employees being recruited by OpenAI with more compensation and additional job responsibilities, said people familiar with the matter.

Apple’s frustration with the outflow of employees came to a head in the lawsuit, which accused the AI startup of a “systematic effort” to steal Apple trade secrets to develop its own AI-powered devices for consumers. The lawsuit says that OpenAI has recruited more than 400 former Apple employees to work at the company and names two Apple alumni as defendants: Tang Tan, OpenAI’s chief hardware officer, and Chang Liu, a member of OpenAI’s technical staff.