A feud between AI companies is getting nasty — and very public

Factory AI and Cognition, two San Francisco AI startups focused on coding agents, are publicly disputing over Chris Degnan's departure from Factory and new role at Cognition amid accusations of confidential information breaches. Factory's CEO alleges Degnan held secret talks with Cognition while advising Factory and that Cognition employees faked interviews to access Factory's internal data. Degnan denies wrongdoing, stating he resigned and never shared Factory information with Cognition.