The suit, July 11 -- SAN FRANCISCO - The rivalry between Apple and OpenAI moved into federal court on Friday when Apple filed a lawsuit accusing the ChatGPT maker of running a trade secret theft operation it described as normalized inside the company - orchestrated, its own complaint states, at "every level" of OpenAI's senior leadership.

Tang Tan, OpenAI's chief hardware officer and a 24-year Apple veteran, and Chang Liu, a senior systems electrical engineer who left Apple for OpenAI earlier this year. Apple is accusing both men of trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract, and asked the court to bar OpenAI from using any confidential information it may have obtained through them.

Tan is the central figure in Apple's account...