Apple Takes Legal Action Against OpenAI Over Alleged Theft of Hardware Secrets
Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI last Friday, alleging that the company stole confidential hardware secrets, including unreleased iPhone parts, prototypes, and designs for secret projects. The lawsuit claims that former Apple employees, particularly OpenAI's chief hardware officer Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple, encouraged departing staff to bring proprietary information and unreleased technology with them.
This legal move is part of Apple's longstanding playbook against competitors poaching its talent. The company has previously threatened or sued former employees for leaking or taking proprietary information. For instance, when Tony Fadell, a longtime Apple executive, started Nest, Steve Jobs called him and threatened to sue after Fadell hired several hundred Apple employees. Fadell reportedly responded, "It's my job to hire great people. It's your job to keep them."
The lawsuit is not primarily about seeking damages from OpenAI, according to analysis. Instead, it appears aimed at slowing down OpenAI's hardware ambitions, as Apple continues to bet on the iPhone as the primary computing platform for the AI era. An audio-first device that works better for tasks not requiring a screen could pose a threat to Apple's dominance.
Recent reporting from Bloomberg suggests OpenAI's device will be a speaker with motorized elements, moving in some capacity. One WIRED editor compared it to a Furby. However, skepticism remains about OpenAI's hardware prospects, given that Apple can still produce speakers and integrate multiple AI options, including Siri AI powered by Gemini.
The lawsuit also reveals that OpenAI has hired more than 400 former Apple employees. Last year, OpenAI paid $6.5 billion to acquire IO Products, a startup co-founded by longtime Apple executives including Tan, Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Jony Ive. This represents a massive investment in hardware, which stings Apple as it loses both AI and hardware talent.
Legal discovery in the case is expected to yield revealing emails between the companies, offering a rare glimpse into their internal dynamics.
OpenAI Employees Launch Rival Super PAC for AI Guardrails
OpenAI's legal troubles are compounded by internal dissent. WIRED learned that OpenAI staffers are funding a rival super PAC called Guardrails Alliance, which advocates for tighter regulations on frontier AI labs. This counterweight to the $100 million Leading the Future fund, backed by OpenAI executive Greg Brockman and others, launched last month with $5 million in initial funding.
The Guardrails Alliance bills itself as a populist effort by tech workers, labor unions, and other groups. One of its largest donors is research engineer Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe, who contributed $200,000 and has spent years working on strategies to mitigate potential societal harms from AI.
This development highlights the growing tension within OpenAI between employees with differing political views. While Brockman and others have donated to MAGA and Trump-related causes, many younger, more liberal employees are pushing back. The company's Slack culture still allows for open debate, but the composition is changing, with newer employees sometimes referred to as "MAGA blondes" by some staff.
The Guardrails Alliance aims to raise $15 million during the election cycle. While this is a fraction of the $100 million Leading the Future fund, it could still have impact by focusing on down-ballot local campaigns, where smaller expenditures can yield significant results. Another PAC, Public First Action, started by Anthropic employees, has around $20 million to combat the same fund.
New York Enacts First Statewide Data Center Moratorium
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New York became the first state in the nation to impose a statewide moratorium on building new data centers. Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order putting a one-year pause on the development of large-scale data centers, defined as those requiring 50 megawatts or more. The moratorium will allow the state to develop new environmental and energy grid standards.
"The bottom line is progress shouldn't arrive with a higher utility bill, depleted water supply, or noise pollution," Hochul said in archival audio. "So we have no choice but to address these challenges created by these massive facilities."
The moratorium does not affect facilities already under construction or with existing permits. It will lift once the state finalizes a generic environmental impact statement, which could take a year or more.
This move reflects a tension between national priorities for AI development and local concerns about the negative impacts of data centers, such as increased energy bills, water consumption, and noise pollution. Other states have attempted similar moratoriums but failed to pass them.
Donald Trump weighed in on Truth Social, criticizing the decision. He claimed that data centers are "one of the biggest driving forces in the future for jobs" and that Hochul "has terminated all data centers being built or to be built in New York State." He argued that companies are now being sought in Alabama, Florida, Texas, and Arizona, and that New York made a terrible decision. However, his statements contained inaccuracies, as the moratorium is temporary and only applies to new large-scale facilities.
DOGE's AI Use at HUD Faces FOIA Stonewalling
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, continues to face scrutiny over its use of AI at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Documents obtained by Democracy Forward, a nonprofit legal organization, reveal that the agency is denying Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for information on how DOGE members used AI to inform policy decisions.
HUD employees previously told WIRED that DOGE members used AI to identify agency rules for potential rescission or contract cancellations. The individuals involved included Christopher Sweet, then a third-year student at the University of Chicago, and Scott Langmack, who came to DOGE from a property technology startup called Kukun (spelled K-U-K-U-N).
The agency is claiming an AI exemption from FOIA, arguing that AI-generated materials are not subject to disclosure. However, there is no such exemption under FOIA. AI is not privileged communication, and there are no laws requiring the government to disclose if AI was used in creating rules, policies, or regulations.
This stonewalling creates a black box around how AI tools were used, what decisions were made, and what biases may have been introduced. Langmack is now the executive director of deregulation AI at the Office of Management and Budget, according to his LinkedIn, indicating that DOGE's influence persists.
Cyclosporiasis Outbreak Spreads Across Over 30 States
WIRED's Emily Mullin discussed the cyclosporiasis outbreak that is spreading across more than 30 states. The parasite causes severe gastrointestinal distress, often described as "turbo diarrhea." The outbreak is expected to grow larger, with health officials working to identify the source.
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