The filing claims these activities occurred after Liu left Apple to join the AI research organization.
The case highlights a significant risk for the technology industry: the potential for trade secrets to be permanently integrated into AI models.
Apple argues that once proprietary data is fed into an AI agent that "learns" from the information, the resulting knowledge can become irreversibly embedded and propagated through the software.
This creates a unique challenge for companies trying to protect intellectual property, as the technical "learning" process may be impossible to undo, potentially giving competitors an unfair advantage in hardware efficiency and power management.
Apple is now seeking expedited discovery—a legal process to speed up the collection of evidence—to prevent the destruction of further proof.
The company alleges that Liu and an associate discussed "restoring" Apple-owned devices to wipe them of forensic logs and metadata before they could be inspected.
Beyond the MacBook already examined, Apple is seeking access to other hardware, including a Mac Mini, to determine the full extent of the data misappropriation before critical digital records are overwritten or lost.