Apple raises new concerns around clawing back trade secrets from an AI
Apple raised concerns in a recent filing that trade secrets fed into an AI agent or model could create an "irreversible" use of that information. Abdul Saboor/Reuters Apple is suing OpenAI, alleging ex-employees used its trade secrets to benefit the company. In a recent filing, Apple said trade secrets fed into an AI could create "irreversible" effects. While legal remedies exist, the technical solution could be complicated, experts say. Here's a novel problem companies may have to deal with in the AI era. A nefarious Big Tech employee leaves for a competitor with trade secrets, feeds them to an AI agent or model while employed by the competitor, and runs some tests using those secrets. Maybe the bad-apple employee then creates a new solution using that confidential knowledge, which the competitor benefits from. Or perhaps those secrets are stored in some knowledge base that an AI could retrieve if the nefarious employees' colleagues have a relevant question. Apple raised that possibility in a supplemental brief filed Monday in support of its request for expedited discovery in its trade-secret lawsuit against OpenAI. In the filing, Apple's attorneys said a former employee's use of
Apple raised concerns in a recent filing that trade secrets fed into an AI agent or model could create an "irreversible" use of that information. Abdul Saboor/Reuters Apple is suing OpenAI, alleging ex-employees used its trade secrets to benefit the company. In a recent filing, Apple said trade secrets fed into an AI could create "irreversible" effects. While legal remedies exist, the technical solution could be complicated, experts say. Here's a novel problem companies may have to deal with in the AI era. A nefarious Big Tech employee leaves for a competitor with trade secrets, feeds them to an AI agent or model while employed by the competitor, and runs some tests using those secrets. Maybe the bad-apple employee then creates a new solution using that confidential knowledge, which the competitor benefits from. Or perhaps those secrets are stored in some knowledge base that an AI could retrieve if the nefarious employees' colleagues have a relevant question. Apple raised that possibility in a supplemental brief filed Monday in support of its request for expedited discovery in its trade-secret lawsuit against OpenAI. In the filing, Apple's attorneys said a former employee's use of
