OpenAI Brings Its Ass to Court

The Musk v. Altman The case began on Wednesday with a special proposal: OpenAI He wants to bring his ass in the courtand exposed it before the judges. It’s a good thing fair ladies wear skin.

The lawyer for Sam Altman’s AI behemoth, Bradley Wilson, went to US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers and presented her with a small gold statue with a white stone. It showed the back of a donkey—with two legs, a butt, and a tail—and the words, “Don’t stop being a wolf to be safe.”

OpenAI’s lawyers say a small group of employees made the gift to future CEO Joshua Achiam, who started at the company as an intern in 2017 and now leads its work studying how society has changed with the adoption of AI. Wilson said Achiam interrupted Elon Musk’s speech from OpenAI in 2018 to warn that the billionaire’s desire to develop AGI at Tesla could come at the expense of security. Wilson added that the competition recalls the “strong language” that Musk used in his response to Achiam – he says, calling him a jackass.

OpenAI requested to present a physical object to Achiam’s testimony on Wednesday, arguing that it adds to their case. Although Musk’s team said the image was irrelevant, Judge Gonzalez Rogers said he would consider granting a motion to prove the case. However, he appears to have been unhappy about admitting it as admissible evidence, which would have put the case in the hands of the court. “I don’t want to,” he said.

Representatives for Musk and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the donkey.

Musk’s lawsuit accuses OpenAI of embezzling charity, misusing his $38 million in funding to build an $850 billion business. In response, OpenAI has said that Musk has always cared more about running a high-tech AGI lab than providing unprofitable funding.

Earlier in the hearing, Musk’s lawyer Steven Molo asked him if he had called an OpenAI employee a “jackass”. Musk said “it’s possible” he did at some point, but he didn’t mean it to be offensive. “Sometimes you have to use language that takes people out of their comfort zone, if we’re going the wrong way,” Musk said.

OpenAI has long prided itself on its jackass. When a Wall Street Journal when asked about the statue in 2023, Altman told them, “You have to have a little fun… This is what culture is made of.”