Morning Scan

The Apple-OpenAI lawsuit keeps pulling threads — trade secrets, poached engineers, hardware ambitions, and a relationship that apparently curdled in real time. The EU is also having a productive week telling American tech companies what they're doing wrong. Monday energy: litigious with a side of Brussels.

"We have no interest in other companies' secrets." — *OpenAI's public response to Apple's lawsuit, via MacRumors*.

Machines & Minds

Apple Sues OpenAI for Allegedly Stealing Hardware Secrets

Apple's complaint centers on engineers who allegedly walked out with proprietary hardware knowledge — the kind that could shortcut OpenAI's device ambitions by years. (The Verge)

The 'LOL' Moment That Set Off Apple's Legal Fight (paywall)

Gurman traces the breakdown to a strained dynamic between OpenAI hardware chief Tang Tan and his former Apple boss John Ternus — a personnel soap opera with nine-figure legal consequences. (Bloomberg)

OpenAI's Hardware Aspirations Could Be Sidetracked for Years

M.G. Siegler's read: the lawsuit could functionally freeze OpenAI's device roadmap at exactly the wrong moment. (Spyglass)

OpenAI Responds After Being Sued

OpenAI's statement — "we have no interest in other companies' secrets" — is the kind of denial that will get workshopped heavily in discovery. (MacRumors)

Connected World

The EU Says Autoplay and Infinite Scroll Are Illegal

The European Commission's preliminary DSA findings against Meta are the most direct regulatory challenge yet to engagement-maximizing design — Meta now has a window to respond before formal action. (The Next Web)

EU Plans New Digital Rules to Protect Consumers from Online Spending Traps (paywall)

Dark patterns, surprise subscriptions, and frictionless upsells are in the crosshairs — new proposals expected before year-end. (Financial Times)

Google Pushes Back on European Piracy-Blocking Proposals

Google's filing argues that DNS- and IP-level blocking is both ineffective and a threat to legitimate infrastructure — a fight worth watching as similar proposals gain traction in the US. (TorrentFreak)

Connected World

OpenAI Folds Safety Into Research — and Its Safety Head Is Leaving

Johannes Heidecke's departure follows a restructuring that formally merges safety and research — a move critics will read as a demotion of the function rather than an integration. (The Next Web)

Bending Spoons Got 800,000 Job Applications Last Year — and Hired 286 People (paywall)

The company behind Vimeo, AOL, and Evernote runs one of the most selective hiring filters in tech — a 0.036% acceptance rate that makes Y Combinator look generous. (Wall Street Journal)

'Michael' Crosses $1 Billion at the Box Office (paywall)

Lionsgate bet on a project the major studios passed on, and it's now a genuine blockbuster — a reminder that "too risky" is sometimes just "too unfamiliar." (NYT)

Apple's Tariff Exemption May Have Required an Intel Chip Deal

The reported quid pro quo — Intel production contracts in exchange for White House tariff relief — adds a transactional layer to Apple's trade policy wins that will raise eyebrows in Cupertino and on Capitol Hill. (AppleInsider)

Free Waymo Rides in California? Blame a Regulatory Quirk

A state agency delay means Waymo's new Ojai vehicle may have to keep running fare-free for a few more months — an accidental consumer win tucked inside a permitting gap. (WIRED)

White House Taps the 'Aliens' Guy to Run Its UFO Advisory Council

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb — known for his enthusiastic extraterrestrial hypotheses — will now head the UAP Science Advisory Council, which is either inspired or exactly what it sounds like. (The Verge)