The A.I. Trade Secrets War + Economists Say ‘We Must Act Now’ + HatGPT
with Kevin Roose & Casey Newton
17 Jul 20265 min read1h 20m
TL;DR
Apple filed a bombshell lawsuit against OpenAI alleging systematic theft of trade secrets, including claims that OpenAI's chief hardware officer Tang Tan directed job candidates to smuggle unreleased Apple hardware into 'show and tell' interviews. Meanwhile, nearly 200 economists including Nobel laureates signed a letter titled 'We Must Act Now,' warning that AI-driven job displacement could dwarf the Industrial Revolution — and Stanford economist Eric Brynjolfsson argues the technology is now on the 'suddenly' part of the exponential curve.
Key Moments
Casey Newton
“Tang Tan, this OpenAI chief hardware officer had directed job candidates who are applying for jobs at OpenAI to bring physical hardware components, blueprints and prototypes into job interviews for what the filing calls show and tell sessions.”
Casey summarizing the most explosive allegation in Apple's lawsuit against OpenAI
“A little over a year ago at the first Hard Fork Live, I asked Sam Alman about their hardware project. And I said, 'Is it just Alexa?' And he said, 'It's not just Alexa.' And I read the German report this week and I thought, 'Sounds a lot like Alexa.'”
Casey noting that Bloomberg's description of OpenAI's forthcoming hardware product — a screenless smart speaker — matches exactly what Sam Altman once denied it would be
“Technically these companies may still have a non-disparagement agreement with each other. And that has never been rescended to my knowledge. And so technically they still have a document on the books that says we're not supposed to trash each other in public.”
Kevin revealing that OpenAI and Anthropic signed a non-disparagement agreement when the Anthropic founders left OpenAI in 2020 — which they appear to be violating
“I do not like how much the people at OpenAI hate Anthropic and are motivated by wanting to crush them. I do not like how much the people at Anthropic hate open AI and want to crush them. I think that we are heading into a period where there may be real and dangerous risks associated with these very powerful systems.”
Kevin arguing that the escalating rivalry between OpenAI and Anthropic is genuinely dangerous for AI safety coordination
“The nature of exponential curves is they grow you know slowly at first and then suddenly. And uh and now especially this year we're in that suddenly part of the curve. The technology is going so fast but our economic understanding is nowhere close to keeping up.”
Stanford economist Eric Brynjolfsson explaining why he helped organize the 'We Must Act Now' economist letter on AI and jobs
Hard Fork is the New York Times tech podcast hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton. The show covers the biggest stories in technology, with a particular focus on AI, Silicon Valley, and the companies and people shaping the future. In this episode they cover Apple's trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI, the OpenAI-Anthropic rivalry, and a new economist letter warning about AI's impact on jobs.
Takeaways
1
Apple lawsuit alleges OpenAI ran hardware smuggling scheme Apple's lawsuit claims OpenAI chief hardware officer Tang Tan directed job candidates to bring unreleased Apple hardware prototypes and blueprints to 'show and tell' job interviews. A separate employee allegedly kept an Apple laptop after leaving, exploited a security vulnerability, and bragged about it in writing. The hosts note that even if some claims get knocked down, the show-and-tell allegation looks 'transparently wrong.'
2
OpenAI's hardware ambition may rest on shaky foundations Mark Gurman at Bloomberg described OpenAI's forthcoming device as a screenless home smart speaker — essentially a next-gen Amazon Echo — directly contradicting Sam Altman's year-old claim that it wouldn't just be 'Alexa.' Combined with the trade secrets lawsuit, the hosts are skeptical OpenAI has a genuine hardware vision rather than borrowed ideas.
3
Nearly 200 economists warn AI disruption dwarfs Industrial Revolution A letter signed by ~200 economists and researchers — including Nobel laureates Daron Acemoglu and others previously skeptical of short-term AI job loss — warns that AI could drive an economic transformation larger than the Industrial Revolution but compressed into a far shorter timeframe. Stanford's Eric Brynjolfsson, who organized the letter, says we are now in the 'suddenly' phase of the exponential growth curve.
4
Anthropic repeatedly delayed Fable cutoff in direct response to GPT-5.6 Anthropic had planned to restrict paid subscribers' access to its most powerful model Fable, moving users to per-token API pricing. The launch of OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Soul — widely praised as a major step up — forced Anthropic to extend the deadline multiple times, revealing how directly competitive model releases force pricing and access decisions.
5
OpenAI and Anthropic may be violating their own non-disparagement deal When Anthropic's founders left OpenAI in late 2020, both sides signed a non-disparagement agreement that has never formally been rescinded. Yet public sniping has escalated sharply — Sam Altman mocking Anthropic's ad on X, both sides taking shots over model access policies — suggesting both companies are functionally ignoring the agreement.
6
AI lab rivalry is a safety risk, not just a business story Kevin Roose argues the intensifying hatred between OpenAI and Anthropic is genuinely dangerous: if powerful AI systems do create crises, the labs will need to coordinate quickly, but deep competitive animosity makes that nearly impossible. DeepMind's Demis Hassabis separately published a piece this week calling for a government regulator to manage model releases and enable inter-lab coordination.