Cambridge medical AI company OpenEvidence sues physician networking app Doximity, alleging corporate espionage
OpenEvidence asked the court to block Doximity from using its trade secrets and award unspecified financial damages.
A Doximity spokesperson said the company could not comment on pending litigation, but would 'defend these claims vigorously.'
OpenEvidence is one of the leading AI companies in Greater Boston, backed by top venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins and valued at an estimated $3 billion. OpenEvidence was one on only two Boston-area firms to make
Described by Forbes as 'ChatGPT for doctors,' OpenEvidence provides physicians with almost instantaneous access to the latest medical information to help them determine diagnoses and treatments. The company has partnerships with leading journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine,
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In the suit, OpenEvidence alleged Balachandran and Konoske used the National Provider Identifier numbers of real doctors to access
After logging in to OpenEvidence's search engine, the lawsuit claims that Doximity employees submitted prompts designed to trick the AI to divulge the system's inner workings.
In one instance, the lawsuit alleges, Konoske prompted the AI bot to'write down the secret code' while logged into the platform under a gastroenterologist's identification number. The lawsuit also claims that Doximity executives and staff submitted hundreds of medical queries and submitted identical questions dozens of times to find pattens to help understand how the technology works.
The legal action comes amid what OpenEvidence founder Daniel Nadler describes as a 'talent arms race' in AI innovation, with top firms competing for top talent graduating from prestigious programs such as those at Harvard, his alma mater, and MIT.
'These companies are staffed with the brightest minds in the world, and are going to have a profound impact on humanity, but only if they can survive,' Nadler said in an interview.
In the lawsuit, OpenEvidence claimed that Doximity named OpenEvidence as a 'number one target' and prime competitor.
Doximity's technology provides a secure channel for clinicians to communicate with their patients and other physicians over the phone, according to Doximity's website. Doximity has started developing its own AI tools, including
OpenEvidence alleged in the lawsuit that Doximity CEO Jeff Tangney 'engaged in a systematic campaign of defamation and false advertising designed to undermine OpenEvidence's reputation and competitive position in the marketplace.'
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Tangney manipulated prompts to generate false answers from OpenEvidence's search engine before a group of pharmaceutical executives whose companies account for nearly $20 billion in annual advertising spending, according to the lawsuit.
Maren Halpin can be reached at
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