Elon Musk calls Sam Altman scammer after Apple accuses OpenAI of stealing trade secrets

Elon Musk has unleashed a scathing online attack against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, following Apple’s allegations that the AI startup stole trade secrets from the iPhone-maker. Reacting to the news of Apple's sweeping federal lawsuit, Musk took to his social media platform, X, to mock his former business partner in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter).Replying to a post which showed Altman saying that he owns no equity in OpenAI and that he is doing this for “love”. Musk wrote, “By ‘this’ he means scamming’. The screenshot is originally from a testimony where he was asked equity in OpenAI. "Do you make a lot of money, do you?," Altman was asked, to which he responded by saying, "No. I'm paid enough for health insurance. I have no equity in OpenAI." Sam Altman went on to add: "I'm doing this because I love it."Replying to that post, Musk added that Altman “might literally love scamming more than any human alive” and added that the OpenAI CEO “takes scamming to a whole new level”.The commentary comes as a prominent X user, DogeDesigner, reminded the public that Musk had long “warned the world about Scam Altman,” sharing an older tweet from Musk that simply read, “Scam Altman is super good at scamming”.Apple lawsuit and OpenAI’s replyMusk’s posts were triggered by a lawsuit filed by Apple, which accuses OpenAI of running a highly coordinated corporate espionage campaign. According to the iPhone maker, OpenAI built up its brand-new consumer hardware division by directly targeting, poaching, and extracting closely guarded corporate secrets from Apple engineers.The lawsuit alleges that the startup actively used its recruitment process to harvest industrial secrets. Apple claims that OpenAI encouraged job candidates to bring physical Apple blueprints and unreleased prototypes straight to their job interviews. Furthermore, the suit alleges OpenAI used stolen proprietary data to secretly approach Apple’s own manufacturing suppliers.Apple’s lawsuit formally charges OpenAI with “trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract,” claiming the startup's leadership actively encouraged and normalized the theft. OpenAI fired back with a swift denial. Drew Pusateri, OpenAI's Director of Strategic Communications, issued a statement on X to defend the company's integrity."We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets," OpenAI stated. "We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere".Get the latest technology news and updates. Download the TOI App.