OpenAI's Donkey Statue Becomes Courtroom Flash Point in Musk Lawsuit

On May 14, OpenAI’s legal team attempted to introduce a gold donkey statue into evidence during testimony by researcher Joshua Achiam, framing the novelty item as proof of a tense 2018 confrontation with Elon Musk. According to Wired AI, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ultimately declined to accept the trophy into the court’s official record, though she permitted discussion of its significance. The incident underscores the unusual evidence and workplace culture details emerging from Musk’s ongoing $850B fraud suit against the AI company.

The Statue and Its Origin

The artifact in question is a small gold sculpture depicting a donkey’s rear end, mounted on a white stone base and inscribed with the message “Joshua Achiam, never stop being a jackass for safety.” According to Wired AI, OpenAI employees Dario Amodei and David Luan presented the trophy to Achiam, who joined the company as an intern in 2017 and now leads its societal-impact research division.

Achiam testified that he interrupted Musk’s farewell speech from OpenAI in 2018 to warn the billionaire that his ambitions to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) at Tesla might compromise safety principles. According to Wired AI, OpenAI attorney Bradley Wilson told the court that the statue commemorates Musk’s “strong language” in response—specifically, allegedly calling Achiam a “jackass.” Achiam described the exchange as tense and unfriendly.

The Judge’s Hesitation

When OpenAI’s legal team moved to present the physical object during Achiam’s testimony, Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff argued it was irrelevant and prejudicial to the case. Judge Gonzalez Rogers signaled she would consider admitting the statue if it directly corroborated Achiam’s account, but expressed clear reluctance about formally adding it to the evidentiary record. According to Wired AI, the judge stated flatly: “I don’t want it.”

Ultimately, OpenAI did not attempt to display the trophy to the jury. However, Achiam spoke to its cultural significance within the organization. “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 testified, as reported by Wired AI.

When confronted earlier in the trial, Musk acknowledged he may have used the epithet but said he did not intend it as a serious insult. “Sometimes you have to use language that gets people out of their comfort zone, if we’re going in the wrong direction,” Musk said, per Wired AI.

Why This Matters

The statue episode illustrates how litigation over AI governance’s early decisions is now examining workplace dynamics and interpersonal friction alongside financial allegations. For observers tracking corporate culture within high-stakes AI development, the trophy—whether admitted as evidence or not—signals that tensions over safety-first positioning versus accelerationist ambitions trace back to OpenAI’s founding conflicts with Musk. The jury’s failure to see the physical object may limit its persuasive impact, but Achiam’s testimony about why colleagues deemed it symbolically important remains part of the trial record.