OpenAI pushes back on Apple trade secret lawsuit

OpenAI finally said something more than a shrug about Apple's lawsuit, and the tone was pointed. In a statement first surfaced by Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow, the company said it's seen no evidence the complaint holds up, while insisting it believes in fair competition and letting people work wherever they want. That's a notably firmer line than the one-liner OpenAI gave TechCrunch right after the suit landed, which mostly just said it has no interest in other companies' trade secrets.

Apple filed the 41-page complaint Friday in the Northern District of California, and it names names. Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple and ran product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch before defecting, is central to the allegations. Apple says its internal investigation turned up evidence that OpenAI and its partners leaned on confidential Apple information while building a hardware product of their own.

The timing makes the stakes obvious. OpenAI bought Jony Ive's startup io earlier this year, and Bloomberg reported Tuesday that the company is quietly developing a screen-free smart speaker, something people close to the project describe as a humanlike AI companion meant to sit in your living room. It reportedly has moving mechanical parts and no display, and several ex-Apple engineers who worked on iPhone and Mac hardware are reportedly helping build it. That's a lot of former Apple talent converging on one gadget.

OpenAI hasn't addressed the specific claims about Tan or the alleged use of internal Apple material — it's sticking to broad language about fair competition and freedom of movement for employees. TechCrunch has asked OpenAI for more detail and hasn't gotten a response yet. Given how much money and reputation are riding on this device, don't expect either side to go quiet anytime soon.