AI talent war is the stuff of Steve Jobs' nightmares

YOU WOULDN'T HAVE exactly called the late Steve Jobs a "man of letters," but he certainly loved a searing email.

- Bloomberg

One of the Apple Inc. co-founder's most famous writings is this 2005 memo to Bruce Chizen, Adobe Inc.'s chief executive officer at the time:

Bruce,

Adobe is recruiting from Apple. They have hired one person already and are calling lots more. I have a standing policy with our recruiters that we don't recruit from Adobe. It seems you have a different policy. One of us must change our policy. Please let me know who.

Steve

The email, along with many others, was submitted as evidence in a fascinating legal saga between the Department of Justice's antitrust unit, eight Silicon Valley companies, and tens of thousands of tech employees who contended their earnings were repressed because of this collusion between company bosses. The companies—Apple, Adobe, Google, Intel, Intuit, eBay, Pixar, and Lucasfilm—were ultimately forced to pay almost $500 million in settlements.