The OpenAI X Antitrust suit intensified this week as OpenAI urged a federal judge in Texas to block the deposition of one of its former executives, arguing he had no involvement in the controversial Apple-ChatGPT integration now at the heart of the legal storm.
In a brief filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, OpenAI said Jan Leike — once co-head of its “superalignment” team — was far removed from the management circle that negotiated the agreement with Apple. The company described efforts to question him under oath as little more than a strategic dragnet.
Deposition or “Fishing Expedition”?
OpenAI characterized X Corp.’s attempt to depose Leike as a “fishing expedition,” alleging the move is designed to unearth internal documents that could cast doubt on the company’s leadership or business decisions.
Leike’s role, OpenAI emphasized, centered on aligning advanced artificial intelligence systems with human intent — long-term guardrails meant to prevent future AI models from veering off course. That work, the company said, had nothing to do with the commercial and privacy considerations behind Apple’s decision to integrate ChatGPT into its devices.
According to the filing, Leike departed OpenAI just 12 days after the Apple agreement was signed — and months before the integration was rolled out to users.
X’s legal team, however, signaled a different view. In an email appended to OpenAI’s brief, counsel for X pointed to a social media thread in which Leike criticized ChatGPT for favoring “shiny products” over safety. X contends that such remarks suggest Leike may possess documents relevant to challenging Apple’s assertion that ChatGPT was selected because it is the safest available option.
OpenAI countered that the comments referenced concerns about future AI systems, not the specific ChatGPT models deployed in Apple’s ecosystem.
“Mr. Leike’s work safeguarding against the dangers of future superintelligent artificial general intelligence is far afield” from the privacy and user security issues Apple may have weighed in its integration decision, the company argued.
