Apple recently Filed a trade secret lawsuit against OpenAIAI accused the company of a pattern of wrongdoing aimed at forcing current and former Apple employees to share confidential information. (in response to OpenAI said he is “not aware of any evidence that this complaint is well founded.”)
In the latest release TechCrunch’s Equity podcastKirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I discussed whether this lawsuit could overshadow OpenAI’s much-discussed plans to enter the hardware business. mobile smart speaker) and go public.
“Even leaving aside whether or not the court grants any privilege or any limitation on what OpenAI is doing, that will naturally lead to some delays in what OpenAI is working on,” Sean said. “I’m sure that’s probably part of the main reason why Apple does it. They don’t do it willingly.”
With all these plans on the line, OpenAI will try to solve this as soon as possible, or learned from it His latest courtroom victory against Elon Musk Can he afford the cost and embarrassment of a lawsuit? Kirsten, at least, predicts the latter.
Read on for a preview of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
Kirsten Korosec: Sean, how would you feel about Sam Altman listening to you with a small device, maybe in your pocket?
Sean O’Kane: i’m fine Maybe this is predictable, but I’m fine. No thank you.
We’ll get into that, I’m sure, but this is allegedly the first product that OpenAI is working on in the hardware division with Jony Ive and company. Since then they have been really excited that weird video they released last year They’re sitting in that coffee shop or bar in San Francisco and they’re talking very vaguely about some kind of hardware and old devices, like laptops and phones. And so, if that’s the direction they’re going, all power goes to the people who want someone like that to always listen to them. It won’t be for me.
Anthony Ha: One of the things we have to remember about these types of devices is that depending on how mobile it is, it’s not just listening to you, it’s also listening to the people around you. I could be fine with that—I’m not fine with that, but let’s just say I was—but then if we meet in person at Disrupt, all of a sudden he can listen to all of us.
There are all kinds of social norms that will have to be renegotiated if they become widespread. I think we should mock and criticize people who post other people without their consent.
Kirsten: Well, I’m bringing up a device that’s been speculated about for a really long time, and we’ll see what it actually turns out to be once it’s officially unveiled, but it’s important in the context of this lawsuit that Apple filed last Friday.
It was certainly the biggest news of the week, and it’s a trade secret lawsuit. It has some pretty wild claims, and we must emphasize that these are the claims made by Apple in the complaint. But what he accuses OpenAI of is an example of wrongdoing at the highest levels, particularly against OpenAI employees who used to work for Apple. And they actually named Tang Tan, the chief hardware officer, in that claim.
All of this is important because Apple accuses OpenAI of stealing their trade secrets, but in this context it could then be used for a competing hardware product. I wonder if there’s any substance to this claim because we haven’t gone through the full investigation, but wow, aside from that being fun, what are your initial impressions of the lawsuit?
Sean: Two things. First, it’s potentially a pretty big risk for whatever OpenAI is working on. Even leaving aside whether or not the court grants any privilege or any restrictions on what OpenAI is doing, that would naturally lead to some delays in what OpenAI is working on, which I’m sure was one of the main reasons behind Apple doing this. They don’t do it voluntarily.
Another one, we think OpenAI has – we know they’ve filed for an IPO in private. If Sam Altman’s cautious language about an IPO is to be believed, we think it could happen late this year or early next year. And it just raises a lot of questions around that, because on the one hand we think their job right now is software; they don’t bring any hardware business into that picture right now.
They’re about to go public, and they’re going to have their bankers and investors brainstorming where their target market should be, and if they have a lot of exposure to their potential hardware division and hardware products, that could be a big risk and change a lot of the calculations on how to price an IPO. So that’s where my head is.
Anthony: One (claim) that I assume Apple has pretty solid numbers on is that they say over 400 Apple employees are currently working on OpenAI. Granted, they are both very large companies with many thousands or tens of thousands of employees. So, as a percentage, it’s not necessarily huge. But that seems like a lot of people and a pretty serious influx of talent.
The other thing I’m interested in is Sean’s point. In the context of a potential IPO, how much damage from a marketing and brand perspective has OpenAI already suffered from the ordeal? It seemed that he mostly won, but there was a lot of not terrible, but kind of embarrassing dirty laundry that came out in the testimony. To what extent are they saying “we don’t want to go through this again”? Or did they learn the lesson, “Hey, we’ve been through this and survived, and we’ll be fine if we have another trial with Apple”?
Kirsten: By the way, I fully predict the latter.
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