After OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recalled on the witness stand on Tuesday how Elon Musk enjoyed showing him memes on his phone during an important meeting, the closely watched (and potentially consequential) tech trial took an even stranger turn. On Wednesday morning, “OpenAI’s lawyers tried to submit into evidence a trophy of a donkey’s ass” awarded to chief futurist Joshua Achiam “after Musk called him a jackass in an all hands meeting,” according to MIT Technology Review’s Michelle Kim. “The trophy reads: ‘never stop being a jackass for safety.’”
The latest courtroom theatrics follow a string of bombshells and oddball moments in proceedings that could determine the future of an AI powerhouse. Musk is suing Altman and Greg Brockman for $134 billion, accusing his fellow OpenAI co-founders of abdicating the company’s original mission in pivoting to a for-profit business. During testimony these past few weeks, Brockman recalled once thinking Musk was going to hit him; Musk described his fears that AI run amok could lead to a Terminator-like dystopia; former CTO Mira Murati said Altman caused “chaos” at the company; newly surfaced texts chronicled Altman’s five-day firing in 2023; and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella described OpenAI’s board at the time as “amateur city.”
