OpenAI Takes Legal Action to Court
▼ Summary
– OpenAI sought to introduce a gold donkey statue into court, given to employee Joshua Achiam by colleagues after Elon Musk allegedly called him a “jackass” for prioritizing safety.
– The statue was inscribed “Joshua Achiam, never stop being a jackass for safety,” commemorating Achiam’s interruption of Musk’s 2018 departure speech to warn about safety risks at Tesla.
– Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers declined to accept the statue as official evidence, saying she did not want it, though she considered allowing it to corroborate testimony.
– Achiam testified that the statue’s significance was that colleagues agreed it was important to stand up to powerful people like Musk.
– Musk’s lawsuit accuses OpenAI of misusing his $38 million in donations to build an $850 billion business, while OpenAI claims Musk sought control over a top-tier AGI lab.
In a courtroom scene that felt more like a Silicon Valley satire than a federal trial, OpenAI’s legal team made an unusual bid to enter a gold donkey statue into evidence on Wednesday. The figurine, depicting the rear end of a jackass, was presented to the judge as a symbolic piece of the company’s internal culture and a key part of its defense against Elon Musk’s lawsuit.
Bradley Wilson, an attorney for Sam Altman’s AI giant, handed the small gold statue with a white stone base to US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. The trophy was inscribed with a pointed message: “Joshua Achiam, never stop being a jackass for safety.” It was originally gifted to OpenAI’s chief futurist by former employees Dario Amodei and David Luan, who wanted to honor Achiam’s willingness to challenge Musk during a tense 2018 departure speech.
Achiam testified that he interrupted Musk’s farewell address to warn that the billionaire’s ambitions to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) at Tesla could compromise safety. Musk’s reaction was immediate and sharp. “He snapped and called me a jackass,” Achiam recalled, describing the exchange as “tense and unfriendly.”
The trophy, OpenAI argued, was not just a gag but a physical reminder of a core principle: standing up to powerful figures in the name of safety. Wilson told the court it commemorated the “strong language” Musk used toward Achiam.
Musk’s legal team pushed back, calling the statue irrelevant and prejudicial. Attorney Marc Toberoff told WIRED in an email that the object had no bearing on the case’s actual claims. Judge Gonzalez Rogers appeared reluctant to accept it as official evidence, saying plainly, “I don’t want it.” Ultimately, OpenAI chose not to show the statue to the nine jurors.
Still, Achiam spoke to the trophy’s deeper meaning on the stand. “What was significant to me was one, that my colleagues agreed it was important to stand up for principles and stand up to very powerful people like Elon,” he said.
The trial is centered on Musk’s allegations that OpenAI effectively stole a charity, using his $38 million in donations to build an $850 billion enterprise. OpenAI counters that Musk was always more interested in controlling a premier AGI lab than in supporting a nonprofit.
Earlier in the proceedings, Musk lawyer Steven Molo asked the Tesla CEO if he had ever called an OpenAI employee a “jackass.” Musk acknowledged it was “possible,” but downplayed the remark. “Sometimes you have to use language that gets people out of their comfort zone, if we’re going in the wrong direction,” he said.
OpenAI has long embraced the jackass statue as part of its lore. When The Wall Street Journal asked about it in 2023, Altman responded, “You’ve got to have a little fun … This is the stuff that culture gets made out of.”
As for Achiam, he testified that he has sold at least $10 million in OpenAI shares and still holds tens of millions more. Not a bad outcome for the man Musk once called a “jackass.”
(Source: Wired)
