A judge has ordered OpenAI to give Apple access to certain hiring records within days. The materials concern interviews with former Apple employees who applied for jobs in OpenAI’s consumer hardware and robotics groups before the rumored launch of the company’s first hardware device.
OpenAI must provide records it has already gathered within five days, and any additional materials covered by Apple’s request within 14 days. The court agreed that Apple should receive them on an expedited schedule, citing the risk of forensic evidence being destroyed. The order provides early access to particular evidence; it does not determine whether OpenAI took Apple trade secrets.
The requested records could include interview checklists, guides, instructions, manuals and scripts, as well as technical presentations and documents indicating whether interview discussions mentioned Apple technology or components.
Filed in July, Apple’s lawsuit alleges a pattern of trade-secret theft. Apple says former employees used company laptops to download confidential materials and files containing details about unannounced technologies, features and products. These included technical specifications, engineering presentations and proprietary project data. The company also alleges that former Apple employees at OpenAI advised colleagues considering a move there about what information to bring to their interviews.
U.S. District Judge Edward Davila declined to grant all of Apple’s requests for expedited access to case-related documents and messages. He did allow access to the interview records and private LINE messages exchanged by people named in the case, including OpenAI employees Chang Liu and Alyssa Peng. LINE is a messaging app.
Davila also authorized depositions of Liu and Peng, along with OpenAI chief hardware officer Tang Yew Tan. Each of the three previously worked at Apple.
The judge refused to expedite access to OpenAI’s research and development in areas such as metal finishes and power management. He also turned down several wider discovery requests, including requests for OpenAI’s hardware research and details of work former Apple employees produced at OpenAI. Those decisions are not final: Apple may narrow its requests and submit them again.
OpenAI is working on a consumer hardware device that could potentially compete with the iPhone, or smartphones more broadly, if the AI device becomes central to how people use software and services. The current order covers hiring evidence and depositions, but not broader access to OpenAI’s hardware work.
