OpenAI publicly responds to Apple's lawsuit: describes it as "careless, aggressive, and personal," stating that Apple mistakenly sent a lawyer's letter and confused the recipient

OpenAI issued a public statement on August 3 in response to the lawsuit filed by Apple. OpenAI described Apple's lawsuit as "careless, aggressive, and personal," and pointed out several factual inaccuracies: an external lawyer from Apple mistakenly sent an email intended for someone else to OpenAI's legal head, falsely claiming that the two parties had spoken over the phone; Apple later admitted it was due to "confusing two Asian surnames." OpenAI also revealed that after contacting Apple in February, Apple stated it was "working to resolve any issues," but then did not communicate for 5 months until filing the lawsuit.

Regarding the allegations against former Apple employee Chang Liu for taking confidential information, OpenAI presented iMessage records from after his departure showing that Apple colleagues had proactively contacted him to request assistance in locating documents, and acknowledged that this was a common issue caused by Apple's "poor management of exit access." Another named executive, Tang Tan, had worked at Apple for over 24 years, and OpenAI stated that he had consistently required his team "not to use any confidential information from other companies." OpenAI indicated that it had proactively offered to cooperate in resolving the matter, but Apple chose to file a lawsuit, claiming that its request for a preliminary injunction was "based on false information and completely unnecessary." Previously, Apple sued OpenAI in July, accusing it of poaching Apple employees and using confidential information to develop AI products.