In an attempt to refute Apple's intellectual property theft claims, OpenAI doesn't address the theft, and instead leans on a racism claim, and a misdirected email to try to get the court of public opinion on its side. Apple is suing OpenAI and alleging that the ChatGPT company poached its staff with the express intention of learning trade secrets.

OpenAI initially responded by trying to put the focus on emails Apple's lawyers mis‑addressed, but now it has come out fighting. In an open letter called "Apple is getting this wrong," OpenAI still goes on about that mis‑addressing, but now says its staff are blameless. It says that ex‑Apple employee Chang Liu just tried to help when his colleagues reached out to him.

The letter then presents redacted message exchanges from Apple employees to Chang Liu, beginning on January 22, 2026, his last day there. The chain shows him wanting to make sure colleagues have all of the files from his iCloud account, and later messages ask him for confidential Apple details, which OpenAI recuperates to argue that Apple employees reached out to its recent hires.

OpenAI publishes this message as part of its argument that it was Apple employees who reached out to its recent hires. The open letter focuses on these exchanges and tries to paint the mis‑addressing of emails as being racist, with Apple confusing two Asian last names, while ignoring the accusation that Chang Liu retained his Apple laptop, which seems proven by what OpenAI posted.