OpenAI’s plans to build and sell an AI device undeniably hit a bump in the road this month when Apple filed a lawsuit against the ChatGPT maker, alleging that former Apple employees stole trade secrets when they left Apple to join OpenAI. But if OpenAI isn’t careful, it’s going to have much bigger problems to deal with.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness, as the expression goes. But when does copying, a time-honored tradition among tech companies, cross the line? According to Apple’s new lawsuit, that’s happening now. Specifically naming Apple’s former 24-year hardware chief Tang Tan and software engineer Chang Liu in the lawsuit, Apple claims OpenAI “wrongfully took Apple’s secret and confidential information.”
The lawsuit alleges impropriety by these job-hoppers. But beyond those claimed contract violations, the underlying concern is that OpenAI will use Apple’s secret sauce — manufacturer contacts, specs, strategies — when creating its own piece of AI hardware. One that, in a worst-case scenario for Apple, could eventually become a competitor to the iPhone.
Apple’s lawsuit is yet another problem on top of a mountain of them. In addition to proving it didn’t steal from Apple, OpenAI already had a tough task: Prove whatever gadget it’s made is safe, useful and worthy of our hard-earned cash. As we’ve seen so far with other AI devices, public reaction ranges from indifference to outrage. And OpenAI has staked a lot on the possibility of creating a tangible product.
OpenAI’s hardware ambitions
OpenAI got serious about the idea of an AI device in 2025, accelerating its plans and public image with the acquisition of io Products, led by famed former Apple designer Jony Ive. With credentials like designing the iPhone, MacBook and Apple Watch, Ive’s partnership with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman set the tone for what to expect.
Kylie Jenner is Meta’s newest model for its smart glasses. The glasses she’s wearing in this ad on Meta’s website is her special edition smart glasses.
Meta’s response to these incidents did little to reassure people that they could easily understand when they were being recorded. The many eye-roll responses to Kylie Jenner’s campaign for her special edition Meta glasses show that. And it’s not like the Facebook parent company has a strong track record of protecting its users’ privacy.
Another AI device that’s sparked backlash is the Friend AI pendant. This always-listening companion raised similar privacy concerns as Meta’s smart glasses. Friend spent $1 million to blanket New York City in ads, which people quickly graffitied. They wrote sentiments like “Surveillance capitalism” and “Get real friends.”
There are other startups experimenting with AI hardware, like the Plaud AI pin and the Vocci AI smart ring. But they’re a niche category of tech, not the kind of essential that smartphones and laptops have become over the past two decades. Maybe that will be the case in the future, but these early waves of backlash show that many of us in the general public aren’t ready to fully integrate it into our lives.
At the very least, they’re PR disasters that are cooling any demand for consumer AI devices, if that demand ever existed at all. But if any company has the clout to bring this fledgling product category into the mainstream consciousness, it’s going to be the same company that already did it with ChatGPT.
Any AI device OpenAI comes out with will be judged against these previous ones. And with AI’s already precarious reputation around privacy — you really shouldn’t be trusting AI with your private and sensitive info — the policy and implementation of safeguards will be crucial.
