Apple's war on OpenAI is really about who owns the Attachment Economy

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Apple's war on OpenAI is really about who owns the Attachment Economy<br>Both Apple and OpenAI want to demo desktop robots this year and ship early next year. It's a race between Apple engineers who stayed and Apple engineers who left.

Mike Elgan<br>Aug 08, 2026<br>∙ Paid

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SILICON VALLEY, CALIFORNIA (AUGUST 8, 2026) — Apple is suing OpenAI, saying the company “has been stealing Apple’s trade secrets and confidential information” and that it’s using these “stolen trade secrets” as the foundation of its “nascent hardware business.”<br>And what is this nascent hardware business?<br>We learned this week from Bloomberg reporting that OpenAI is working on a family of hardware devices that includes a smart speaker (and also smart glasses and a smartphone), all of which happen to be devices Apple makes.<br>Bloomberg reported a little nugget that reveals OpenAI’s intentions: OpenAI’s smart speaker, designed in partnership with former Apple designer Jony Ive’s studio LoveFrom, will be a round, donut-shaped puck with a camera and “moving parts” that will make the device feel alive.<br>In other words, it’s an Attachment Economy hardware product. The Attachment Economy idea is the exploitative use of AI to hijack a person’s innate capacity to form emotional attachments to people and pets and trick them into developing emotional attachments to AI products.<br>OpenAI’s gadget will join a growing list of Attachment Economy hardware devices. That list already includes Apple’s “desktop robot,” which has a screen attached to an articulating arm that expresses emotions through “body language.” Apple is working on two versions: one code-named J490 that is probably a static smart speaker with a screen, but with Attachment Economy attributes in the form of a rudimentary “face” on the screen and a more human-like Siri, and another code-named J595 that is expected to have a full articulating arm that “expresses” something akin to “body language” that simulates inner thoughts and feelings.<br>Apple wanted to ship the J490 this year, but I’m hearing that Siri isn’t quite ready and that Apple now plans to announce and demo the device later this year, and ship early next year.<br>THE NEW THING: Superintelligent: “Shower Thoughts About OpenAI’s Hugging Face Hack”<br>READ: The Attachment Economy, Computerworld, Gastronomad newsletter, Gastronomad book<br>LISTEN: Superintelligent, TWiT, Gastronomad podcast<br>JOIN: The Gastronomad Experience<br>FOLLOW: Gastronomad on Surf Social, Machine Society on Surf Social, Bluesky, Reddit, Notes, Mastodon, Threads, X, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin!<br>LOOK AT: Mike Elgan Photography

OpenAI, meanwhile, is looking at a similar schedule. The company will probably announce this year and ship early next. Making matters worse for Apple, OpenAI’s device will feature robotic movement that simulates emotions and internal thinking, and Apple’s first version will not.<br>Apple and OpenAI are in a race to see who can first demo and then ship their Attachment Economy hardware devices. OpenAI has the advantage of Jony Ive and roughly 400 former Apple engineers and designers, some of whom no doubt were privy to Apple’s plans and designs for J490 and J595.<br>Ergo: the lawsuit.<br>Who are these former Apple engineers and designers?<br>The lawsuit names former Apple executives Tang Tan, now OpenAI’s Chief Hardware Officer, and Chang Liu, who works as an electrical engineer at OpenAI, as two people involved in allegedly stealing Apple’s intellectual property. Apple also added 11 unnamed people to the suit. It’s possible that some of these 11 were actually working on J490 and J595 before getting poached by OpenAI.<br>One person who may be on the list of 11 is a mechanical engineer named Bob T. Cai.

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