Apple has filed a reply defending its request for expedited discovery in its lawsuit against former employees, OpenAI, and io Products over alleged trade secret misappropriation. The move follows OpenAI's opposition, which argued the request was overbroad and unnecessary since regular discovery would largely overlap with Apple's proposed accelerated timeline. Apple is seeking early document production, forensic device imaging, and depositions within 30 to 50 days, alongside a separate preliminary injunction request to halt use of its alleged proprietary information.
Chris Malone, who led OpenAI's data center strategy after joining from Meta and Google in March 2024, has left the company. OpenAI confirmed it recently restructured its infrastructure organization, shifting oversight so that Malone no longer reported to President Greg Brockman but instead to VP Sachin Katti before his exit. The company says several other executives, including Uday Ruddarraju, Brent Mayo and Spas Lazarov, remain in charge of its data center efforts.
Alabama has launched a state investigation examining how OpenAI obtained or used data connected to Hugging Face's model repository. Details of the alleged breach or improper access remain limited, but the inquiry signals regulatory scrutiny of how leading AI firms acquire training resources.
Chris Malone, who led OpenAI's data center buildout since March 2025, has left the company, according to CNBC. Malone previously worked as a distinguished engineer on infrastructure at Meta and Google before joining OpenAI to help manage its roughly $600 billion compute spending plan through 2030. OpenAI says it has reorganized its infrastructure team and maintains strong leadership despite the exit.
OpenAI has expanded access to ChatGPT's task scheduling hub, previously limited to paid tiers, so free account holders can now set up scheduled prompts. The company also added the ability to share scheduled tasks with other users, letting useful automations spread across workflows.
OpenAI has released an Admin plugin for ChatGPT Work and Codex that lets workspace administrators manage users, permissions and spending limits through a chat interface rather than a separate dashboard. The tool can generate usage reports, flag credit thresholds, and handle onboarding or offboarding tasks on request. A company demo showed an admin querying adoption trends and requesting visual breakdowns for a monthly review.
Chris Malone, who led OpenAI's data center operations, has exited the company. His departure adds to a growing list of senior executives leaving OpenAI as it accelerates infrastructure spending and moves toward a possible IPO.
TechCrunch has pushed back the cutoff for discounted TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 tickets to 11:59 pm PT on Tuesday, August 25, after attendees asked for more time. After the deadline, prices rise, with savings of up to $300 on individual passes and larger discounts for group registrations disappearing. Disrupt 2026 will run October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco, featuring speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit, Amazon and Databricks.
Reports indicate OpenAI and Google are both losing key AI researchers to competitors and startups, though the departures are affecting each company differently in terms of scale and strategic impact. Separately, Nvidia has committed an additional $6 billion to support open-weight AI models, while rare-book dealers report a surge in sales tied to AI-era demand, alongside mixed feelings about that trend.
At the Hot Chips conference, OpenAI released the first benchmark results for Jalapeño, its custom AI inference chip built with Broadcom. On SemiAnalysis' InferenceX test, the chip beat current Nvidia Blackwell systems in tokens served per user and throughput per kilowatt of power. OpenAI plans small-scale deployment by late 2026, with broader rollout in 2027.
OpenAI has revealed details of Jalapeño, a custom inference chip developed with Broadcom over roughly 16 months, at the Hot Chips conference. SemiAnalysis tested the chip using its InferenceX benchmark suite and found it outperforms Nvidia, AMD, and Google chips across multiple open-source models, despite being OpenAI's first hardware effort.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a podcast interview that AI has not yet had a transformative breakthrough moment comparable to the iPhone's impact on smartphones, despite having the underlying technology in place. He also acknowledged struggling with a lesson from Steve Jobs' Apple playbook: saying no to good ideas to focus resources on great ones, and admitted he was too optimistic about how fast AI would reshape the economy.
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