This week on Uncanny Valley, the team discusses the details behind Apple suing OpenAI over alleged stolen hardware secrets. And the company’s headaches don’t stop there—a group of OpenAI employees just started a super PAC to advocate for stronger AI guardrails. Plus, New York’s first-in-the-nation data center moratorium draws Donald Trump’s ire, DOGE stonewalls FOIA requests on its AI use at HUD, and …’s Emily Mullin explains the cyclosporiasis outbreak spreading across more than 30 states.
Articles mentioned in this episode:
- Apple Is Suing OpenAI for Allegedly Stealing Hardware Secrets
- OpenAI Staffers Are Funding a Rival Super PAC to Take on Their Boss
- New York Governor Signs First Statewide Data Center Moratorium
- DOGE Used AI for Housing Policy. The Government Won’t Say How
- The Explosive Diarrhea Outbreak Is About to Get Much Bigger
You can follow Brian Barrett on Bluesky at @brbarrett, Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer, and Leah Feiger on Bluesky at @leahfeiger. Write to us at [email protected].
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Transcript
Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.
Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to …'s Uncanny Valley. I'm Zoë Schiffer, contributing editor.
Brian Barrett: I'm Brian Barrett, executive editor.
Leah Feiger: And I'm Leah Feiger, director of politics and science.
Zoë Schiffer: This week we're discussing OpenAI's ongoing drama, both legal and reputational. Last Friday, Apple sued the company basically alleging that OpenAI has been stealing confidential hardware secrets. And now this week, … learned that some OpenAI employees are launching a super PAC to push for AI guardrails. We'll get into all those details and whether these developments could further hurt OpenAI, particularly in its fight against Anthropic.
Brian Barrett: Also on the AI front, this week, New York State officially passed the first statewide data center moratorium. We'll dive into what that means exactly and whether this move could pave the way for other states to follow suit.
Leah Feiger: We'll also talk about how some members of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE, used AI to actually shape housing policy. And we're going to check in on the disease sweeping the nation, cyclosporiasis, which is causing "turbo diarrhea" across the country.
Zoë Schiffer: OK, you guys, I'm really excited to start with this OpenAI drama because the company has been in the headlines a lot lately and not for fantastic reasons. So basically what happened was last Friday, Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for allegedly stealing information like unreleased iPhone parts and prototypes, confidential designs, documents about secret projects. That accusation sucks for OpenAI. It's pretty intense, but it gets really messy because Apple is basically saying that this theft, this alleged theft, mostly happened through former employees. OpenAI's chief hardware officer, Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple, is named in the lawsuit and accused of encouraging people who are leaving Apple to bring with them proprietary information and unreleased technology. You guys, Brian, I'm so curious what you thought when this dropped.
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