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OpenAI exec recalls 'tense exchange' where Elon Musk called him a 'jackass'
Joshua Achiam, OpenAI’s chief futurist, testified in the Musk v. Altman trial. Bloomberg/Getty Images An OpenAI executive told a federal jury Wednesday how Elon Musk once called him a “jackass” during a heated clash over AI safety. Joshua Achiam, OpenAI’s chief futurist, recalled the “pretty tense exchange” during testimony in the California civil trial between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. “He snapped and called me a jackass,” Achiam testified. Achiam said that around 50 to 60 employees had gathered during a February 2018 company all-hands meeting for a question-and-answer session ahead of Musk’s planned departure from the startup he cofounded with Altman. According to Achiam, then a research scientist at OpenAI, Musk said he was leaving because Tesla, Musk’s electric car company, would soon compete with OpenAI for elite AI talent, creating a “conflict of interest.” “He also indicated a general lack of confidence in OpenAI’s overall path,” Achiam said, adding that Musk “wanted to go and do his own thing and sort of pursue AGI in his own way.” “It sounded like he wanted to race towards AGI, like he wanted to build it very fast, because he was very worried that someone else, if they got it, would do the wrong thing with it,” Achiam said. Achiam said he and a few others were concerned that racing toward AGI was a “fairly unsafe proposition,” telling the jury that Musk was proposing something that seemed “reckless.” “We didn’t know whether a science fiction super intelligence bootstrapping event where you set the thing running one night, and you come back the next morning, and it’s so unbelievably smart it can crack encryption and take over the world was a science fiction scenario or not?” he said. When an OpenAI lawyer asked whether Musk may have been trying to push him out of his “comfort zone” by calling him a jackass — as Musk has alluded to in his own previous testimony in the case — Achiam said no. “I don’t think that was why he called me that. I think he was just upset that he had been challenged,” Achiam said. After the meeting, Achiam told the jury that a few colleagues expressed their gratitude to him. At the next company all-hands, he was presented with a trophy “to commemorate the exchange, and in thanks for having stood up to Elon.” The trophy, Achiam said, was a gold statue depicting a “jackass” with an inscription: “Never stop being a jackass for safety.” Read the original article on Business Insider The post OpenAI exec recalls ‘tense excha...
OpenAI Exec Recalls Elon Musk Calling Him a 'Jackass' - Business Insider
Joshua Achiam, OpenAI's chief futurist, testified in the Musk v. Altman trial. Bloomberg/Getty Images 2026-05-13T19:09:52.296Z OpenAI exec Joshua Achiam testified about a "tense exchange" he had with Elon Musk in 2018. Musk, Achiam told the jury in the Musk v. Altman trial, called him a "jackass." The two clashed over AI safety, and Achiam's colleagues later gifted him a gold "jackass" trophy. An OpenAI executive told a federal jury Wednesday how Elon Musk once called him a "jackass" during a heated clash over AI safety. Joshua Achiam, OpenAI's chief futurist, recalled the "pretty tense exchange" during testimony in the California civil trial between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman."He snapped and called me a jackass," Achiam testified. OpenAI exec recalls 'tense exchange' where Elon Musk called him a 'jackass' Achiam said that around 50 to 60 employees had gathered during a February 2018 company all-hands meeting for a question-and-answer session ahead of Musk's planned departure from the startup he cofounded with Altman.According to Achiam, then a research scientist at OpenAI, Musk said he was leaving because Tesla, Musk's electric car company, would soon compete with OpenAI for elite AI talent, creating a "conflict of interest." "He also indicated a general lack of confidence in OpenAI's overall path," Achiam said, adding that Musk "wanted to go and do his own thing and sort of pursue AGI in his own way.""It sounded like he wanted to race towards AGI, like he wanted to build it very fast, because he was very worried that someone else, if they got it, would do the wrong thing with it," Achiam said.Achiam said he and a few others were concerned that racing toward AGI was a "fairly unsafe proposition," telling the jury that Musk was proposing something that seemed "reckless.""We didn't know whether a science fiction super intelligence bootstrapping event where you set the thing running one night, and you come back the next morning, and it's so unbelievably smart it can crack encryption and take over the world was a science fiction scenario or not?" he said.When an OpenAI lawyer asked whether Musk may have been trying to push him out of his "comfort zone" by calling him a jackass — as Musk has alluded to in his own previous testimony in the case — Achiam said no."I don't think that was why he called me that. I think he was just upset that he had been challenged," Achiam said.After the meeting, Achiam told the jury that a few colleagues expressed thei...
OpenAI Musk Altman Trial Jackass Trophy Evidence Reveals 2018 Saf
According to OpenAI's legal team, employees gifted the trophy to chief futurist Joshua Achiam after he interrupted Musk's 2018 departure speech to warn that developing AGI at Tesla could compromise safety standards. The statue allegedly commemorates Musk calling Achiam a "jackass" in response to the safety challenge.
What I saw at the Musk-OpenAI trial: petty billionaires, protests and a ...
The trial centers on Musk accusing Silicon Valley's fastest-rising upstarts, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, of deceiving and swindling him by founding OpenAI as a non-profit in 2015 and then ...
