Apple Is Suing OpenAI for Allegedly Stealing Hardware Secrets
Apple Is Suing OpenAI for Allegedly Stealing Hardware Secrets
苹果起诉 OpenAI，指控其窃取硬件机密
Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its hardware chief on Friday for allegedly stealing the iPhone maker’s trade secrets, including unreleased parts and prototypes, confidential designs, and documents about stealth projects.
周五，苹果公司对 OpenAI 及其硬件主管提起诉讼，指控其窃取了苹果的商业机密，包括尚未发布的零部件和原型机、机密设计以及有关秘密项目的文档。
The lawsuit accuses OpenAI chief hardware officer Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple and oversaw iPhone product design, and his colleagues at the AI company of encouraging people departing or considering leaving Apple to bring with them proprietary and unreleased technology. Tan allegedly helped coach recruits on how to evade Apple’s data security protocols and directed them to bring confidential Apple parts to job interviews at OpenAI.
该诉讼指控 OpenAI 首席硬件官唐·坦（Tang Tan）及其在 OpenAI 的同事。唐·坦曾在苹果工作 24 年，负责 iPhone 产品设计。诉讼称，他鼓励那些即将离职或考虑离职的苹果员工携带苹果的专有技术和未发布技术加入 OpenAI。据称，唐·坦还指导应聘者如何规避苹果的数据安全协议，并指示他们携带苹果的机密零部件去 OpenAI 参加面试。
“OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets,” Apple says in the lawsuit, which was filed in US district court in San Jose. The company describes OpenAI as resorting “to taking unlawful shortcuts” while under “mounting pressure to deliver its first commercial hardware product.”
苹果在提交至圣何塞美国地方法院的诉讼中表示：“OpenAI 新兴的硬件业务现在建立在最不稳固的基础上，因其非法依赖窃取的商业机密而从根本上腐烂。”苹果公司称，OpenAI 在“交付其首款商业硬件产品的巨大压力”下，采取了“非法捷径”。
OpenAI and Tan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
OpenAI 和唐·坦没有立即回应置评请求。
Apple spokesperson Hannah Smith says the company “will always defend our teams’ hard work and innovations, and we are taking all appropriate steps to do so.”
苹果发言人汉娜·史密斯（Hannah Smith）表示，公司“将始终捍卫我们团队的辛勤工作和创新成果，我们正在采取一切适当措施来做到这一点。”
The lawsuit opens what may become the highest-stakes and most dramatic battle over intellectual property theft in Silicon Valley since autonomous ride-hailing company Waymo in 2017 accused Uber of stealing hardware designs when it brought on a former Waymo engineer who had left with thousands of confidential files. Uber agreed to pay $245 million to settle the lawsuit during the middle of a trial the following year.
这起诉讼开启了硅谷自 2017 年以来的又一场高风险、戏剧性的知识产权盗窃之争。当年，自动驾驶公司 Waymo 指控 Uber 在聘用一名带走数千份机密文件的 Waymo 前工程师时窃取了其硬件设计。次年，Uber 在庭审期间同意支付 2.45 亿美元以和解该诉讼。
Apple and OpenAI have been partners since 2024, when the companies announced a landmark deal to distribute ChatGPT on iPhones, Macbooks, and iPads. But the relationship has frayed in recent years, prompting Apple to rely more on Google’s Gemini AI technology as the foundation for the company’s in-house AI models. OpenAI and Apple are expected to more fiercely compete in the coming years in the emerging market for AI-powered consumer devices.
苹果和 OpenAI 自 2024 年起成为合作伙伴，当时双方宣布了一项里程碑式的协议，将 ChatGPT 引入 iPhone、MacBook 和 iPad。但近年来双方关系趋于紧张，促使苹果更多地依赖谷歌的 Gemini AI 技术作为其内部 AI 模型的基础。预计未来几年，OpenAI 和苹果将在新兴的 AI 驱动消费设备市场上展开更激烈的竞争。
OpenAI has hired more than 400 former Apple employees, according to the lawsuit. That includes several former Apple veterans who are leading OpenAI’s development of AI-powered consumer devices. Last year, OpenAI paid $6.5 billion to acquire a startup called io Products that was cofounded by longtime Apple executives including Tan, Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and famed designer Jony Ive.
诉讼显示，OpenAI 已经雇佣了超过 400 名苹果前员工。其中包括几位领导 OpenAI 开发 AI 驱动消费设备的苹果资深人士。去年，OpenAI 以 65 亿美元收购了一家名为 io Products 的初创公司，该公司由包括唐·坦、斯科特·坎农（Scott Cannon）、埃文斯·汉基（Evans Hankey）以及著名设计师乔尼·艾维（Jony Ive）在内的多位苹果长期高管共同创立。
io Products and Chang Liu, an electrical engineer at OpenAI who was at Apple until January, are also named as defendants in the lawsuit. (Liu didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.)
io Products 以及在今年 1 月前任职于苹果、现就职于 OpenAI 的电气工程师刘畅（Chang Liu，音译）也被列为被告。（刘畅未立即回应置评请求。）
Apple’s investigation into the alleged theft relies on data and messages gathered from its employees’ devices. The company caught on to the alleged theft early this year after Liu never returned his company-issued laptop and wrote to a former colleague about still having access to Apple’s internal file-sharing system, according to the lawsuit. (Apple says in the filing that Liu’s access was enabled by a bug that’s now been fixed.)
苹果对这起涉嫌盗窃案的调查依赖于从员工设备中收集的数据和信息。据诉讼称，今年年初，刘畅在离职后未归还公司配发的笔记本电脑，并写信给前同事称自己仍能访问苹果的内部文件共享系统，苹果公司因此发现了这一涉嫌盗窃的行为。（苹果在文件中表示，刘畅的访问权限是由于一个现已修复的漏洞导致的。）
Liu “downloaded dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files,” including a presentation on manufacturing and testing complex circuit boards used in Apple’s hardware, the lawsuit states. It adds that Liu also coached an Apple employee he was recruiting to join OpenAI on how to “‘avoid trouble with the security team’ when copying confidential Apple files.”
诉讼指出，刘畅“下载了数十份苹果机密的硬件相关文件”，其中包括一份关于制造和测试苹果硬件所用复杂电路板的演示文稿。诉讼还补充说，刘畅还指导他正在招募的一名苹果员工，教其在复制苹果机密文件时如何“避免被安全团队发现”。
Apple wrote to OpenAI in February raising initial concerns about alleged theft but did not receive any response. That led to further investigation and the filing of the lawsuit.
苹果在 2 月份致信 OpenAI，提出了对涉嫌盗窃的初步担忧，但未收到任何回复。这导致了进一步的调查并最终提起诉讼。
Apple learned that before leaving, Tan emailed himself information about the company’s suppliers. Other employees leaving for OpenAI have done the same, Apple alleges. In addition, Tan “has directed job candidates still working for Apple to bring ‘actual parts’ from Apple to their interviews for ‘show and tell’ sessions in which he and his team at OpenAI can elicit still more Apple confidential information,” the lawsuit alleges, naming batteries, logic boards, and shields as sought-after components.
苹果获悉，唐·坦在离职前曾将有关公司供应商的信息通过电子邮件发送给自己。苹果指控其他跳槽到 OpenAI 的员工也做了同样的事情。此外，诉讼还称，唐·坦“指示仍在苹果工作的求职者携带苹果的‘实际零部件’参加面试，进行‘展示与讲解’环节，以便他和 OpenAI 的团队能从中获取更多苹果的机密信息”，并点名电池、逻辑板和屏蔽罩是其觊觎的组件。
In another instance, Apple identified a then Apple employee “screenshotting and downloading files relating to a highly confidential Apple project” in the hours before an interview with Tan at OpenAI.
在另一个案例中，苹果发现一名当时的苹果员工在面试唐·坦（OpenAI）前的几个小时内，“截屏并下载了与苹果高度机密项目相关的文件”。
Tan is further accused of taking an internal Apple document for managers that explains security procedures for departing workers. He and OpenAI recruiters have allegedly used the file to counsel departing Apple employees to avoid disclosing their new employer, prolong access to company systems, and avoid signing any exit documents.
唐·坦还被指控带走了一份苹果内部供经理使用的文档，该文档解释了离职员工的安全程序。据称，他和 OpenAI 的招聘人员利用该文件建议离职的苹果员工不要透露新雇主、延长对公司系统的访问权限，并避免签署任何离职文件。
“Unsurprisingly, Apple has uncovered a concerning recent pattern among employees who depart and then go work for OpenAI,” the lawsuit states. “Departing employees have been taking actions to evade security measures, such as failing to provide two-weeks’ notice, and ignoring outreach by security personnel to schedule exit processes and security reviews.”
诉讼称：“不出所料，苹果发现离职后前往 OpenAI 工作的员工中存在一种令人担忧的近期模式。离职员工一直在采取行动规避安全措施，例如未提前两周通知，以及无视安全人员安排离职流程和安全审查的联系。”
Apple’s accusations against OpenAI’s io unit include that it has approached at least two of the iPhone maker’s suppliers aiming to replicate work. One company carried out “a specific trade secret metal-finishing technique for OpenAI” after being misled into thinking that Apple had signed off on the project, according to the lawsuit. OpenAI approached the other supplier, which works on batteries, with “targeted questions” to learn more about Apple components and further its own interests, the lawsuit adds.
苹果对 OpenAI 旗下 io 部门的指控还包括，该部门曾接触至少两家苹果供应商，旨在复制苹果的工作。诉讼称，其中一家公司在被误导认为苹果已批准该项目后，为 OpenAI 执行了“一种特定的商业机密金属表面处理技术”。诉讼补充说，OpenAI 还向另一家从事电池业务的供应商提出了“针对性问题”，以了解更多关于苹果组件的信息，从而推进其自身利益。
OpenAI has said relatively little about its hardware efforts, except for the fact that it’s developing a “family” of AI-powered devices. While OpenAI previously planned to use the io branding for its hardware products, the company has since indicated in court filings that it will choose a new name, and won’t ship any devices to customers until at least April.
OpenAI 对其硬件工作透露的信息相对较少，仅表示正在开发一个 AI 驱动的设备“系列”。虽然 OpenAI 此前计划为其硬件产品使用 io 品牌，但该公司在法庭文件中表示，将选择一个新名称，并且至少要到 4 月份才会向客户发货。