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#apple#employee#openai#former#employees#security#processes#departing#logs#tan

Discussion (9 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

apparent•about 2 hours ago
>In its lawsuit Friday, Apple accused Tang Tan, OpenAI’s chief hardware officer and a former Apple executive, of coaching his hires from Apple on how to evade Apple’s security processes for departing employees.

The word "coaching" is very malleable, and could refer to perfectly legal conduct, or conduct that is illegal, unethical, or both. How would an OpenAI employee know what Apple's security processes for departing employees are? One would assume he was told by previously-departed Apple employees. Would they have been forbidden to disclose information about the outgoing process? I would think so, given how careful Apple is about these things.

> Apple accused another former employee, Chang Liu, of using a former colleague’s Apple-owned laptop to access and download technical documents while working at OpenAI. Mr. Liu told that Apple employee what information about unannounced products she should study before job interviews, Apple said.

I would be very hesitant to assist a former colleague who is still at Apple in this way. Apple is well known for using deliberate leaks to smoke out leakers, and it would be easy for them to get a current/loyal employee to go through the interview process at a competitor for the purpose of finding out if the competitor is trying to get Apple employees to act unethically/illegally.

EDIT: I see my comment, which I posted on the HN thread for an NYT article, has been merged into the comment section of a different article, and is now being downvoted a bunch. Please understand I did not post this comment here, so if it seems out of place that's why.

wilsonnb3•about 2 hours ago
> How would an OpenAI employee know what Apple's security processes for departing employees are?

The openAI employee in question is also a former Apple employee.

MeetingsBrowser•about 1 hour ago
Not just any employee. A 24 year veteran and at the time of departure the VP of design for the iPhone and Apple Watch
apparent•about 1 hour ago
Ah, somehow I missed that even though it was included in the quote I copied. Thanks!
madeofpalk•about 2 hours ago
> After his own departure, Mr. Tan improperly retained or obtained an internal Apple managers’ document marked “Need to Know” that describes security procedures for employee departures. Messages left on Apple-issued work devices show that Mr. Tan and his OpenAI colleagues have been sharing this document with new hires before they give notice to Apple of their departures, previewing Apple’s security protocols.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28453229-apple-v-ope...

Lawsuits like this tend to be surprisingly easy to read, partly because they intend for the public/journalists to read them.

BeetleB•about 2 hours ago
> How would an OpenAI employee know what Apple's security processes for departing employees are?

Either by being a former Apple employee, or polling former Apple employees.

visarga•about 2 hours ago
Can't stand NYT ever since they subpoenaed for millions of chat logs from OpenAI, trashing user privacy for their own goals on a massive scale.
wilsonnb3•about 2 hours ago
What user privacy? There would be no chat logs to subpoena if users had privacy.
tzs•about 1 hour ago
The NYT doesn't get to see the logs. They will only be seen by the attorneys handling the lawsuit and possibly expert witnesses they hire, who all are under strong NDAs.
eddyfromtheblok•about 2 hours ago
threetonesun•about 2 hours ago
What were their "own goals", exactly? Why did you ever assume your chat logs were private on OpenAI?
smotched•about 1 hour ago
So you're okay with a data hoarding company building AGI having your data but not some journalists having <1% of it?
CamperBob2•22 minutes ago
...Yeah?