A new report from the Financial Times says that Apple sent legal 'preservation' letters to about 40 former employees who moved to OpenAI, asking them to keep any documents or communications that may be relevant to trade secret cases.

This comes alongside a lawsuit Apple filed last week against OpenAI, accusing two of its former employees (Tan Yieu Tan and Zhang Liu) of transferring trade secrets that OpenAI used to develop its new consumer hardware products.

Tan currently works as a hardware director at OpenAI, while Liu was an iPhone engineer at Apple before leaving for OpenAI earlier this year.

Despite OpenAI denying the allegations, Apple insists the case is just the 'tip of the iceberg,' indicating its concern that more former employees may be involved in transferring sensitive information.

The legal letters also indicate that these employees may be summoned for investigation and subject to 'discovery' procedures during the case.

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Apple reports that more than 400 of its former employees currently work at OpenAI (about 10% of its employees who moved to the AI field), but the letters focused on a specific group of prominent transfers, reflecting Apple's concerns about the leakage of trade secrets to one of its biggest competitors in the AI market.

More details about the circumstances of the case and the targeted employees are expected to emerge as the lawsuit progresses in courts in the coming period.

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