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RUSSIA PERSPECTIVE
APPLE SUES OPENAI OVER TRADE-SECRET THEFT
DOMINANT ANGLE
Moscow sees the Apple-OpenAI trial as a symptom of internal rivalries that are undermining the US pursuit of artificial intelligence, marked by alleged trade secret thefts and a string of abandoned products.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
ANALYSIS
Moscow, July 11, 2026. The judicial procedure initiated by Apple against OpenAI is finding factual resonance in the Russian press, which is primarily based on the text of the lawsuit itself. RIA Novosti, citing the document filed in Washington and which the agency says it has access to, reports that Apple is suing the creator of ChatGPT and two of its former employees, accusing them of stealing trade secrets related to the development of an artificial intelligence device. According to the quote cited by the state agency, "at every level - from technical staff members to the hardware director - and in its interactions with business partners, OpenAI has stolen Apple's trade secrets and confidential information." The Cupertino firm also accuses its two former employees of transmitting this information to OpenAI.
Apple is asking the court to prohibit the defendants from using or disclosing its trade secrets, to force them to return the company's property and to cease all access to its sensitive data. The company is also seeking compensation for damages, restitution of profits made by the defendants, punitive damages, and reimbursement of court costs, RIA Novosti specifies.
The case comes as OpenAI is going through a tumultuous period, Meduza notes. The independent media outlet reports that the company has just announced the shutdown of its artificial intelligence-powered browser, Atlas, launched less than nine months ago: some of its functions will be integrated into the ChatGPT desktop application and a Chrome extension. This decision, made four months after an internal call to reduce secondary projects, follows the closure of Sora, the company's video generator. Initial Western feedback already judged Atlas to be lagging behind, particularly as a search engine.
For the Russian press, this accumulation - a lawsuit for theft of secrets on one hand, successive withdrawals of products on the other - illustrates the internal tensions that are affecting the American artificial intelligence ecosystem, where the race for innovation is accompanied by growing legal conflicts between former partners turned rivals. No reaction from OpenAI has been reported so far.
KEY POINTS
- Moscow notes that Apple is accusing OpenAI and two former employees of stealing trade secrets "at every level, from technical staff members to the hardware director" (RIA Novosti)
- Russia observes that Apple is seeking an injunction, restitution of its property, compensatory damages, punitive damages, and reimbursement of legal fees
- Russians are aware that OpenAI announced the closure of its Atlas browser, launched less than nine months ago, after already discontinuing its Sora video generator (Meduza)
COGNITIVE BIASES IDENTIFIED
Moscow's legal framework is centered around the Apple lawsuit text, which is largely reproduced without direct counterpoint from OpenAI
Russian government sources are preferred: RIA Novosti relays the judicial document without additional investigation into the AI system in question
Low coverage of technical content: few details are provided on the exact nature of the artificial intelligence system at the heart of the dispute
SOURCES (2)
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