A Federal Judge Read a Jackass Trophy Aloud for the Press
At Musk v. Altman, a trophy reading "Never stop being a jackass" was read aloud in court. The artifact explained the trial better than any pleading.
On May 13, 2026, before the jury was seated in Musk v. Altman, Sam Altman's legal team passed what appeared to be a small trophy across the courtroom. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers had the lawyers read the inscription aloud for the press: "Never stop being a jackass." The object was commissioned by OpenAI employees to commemorate research scientist Josh Achiam, who testified in the trial.
The inscription traces back to a specific exchange. When Musk was leaving OpenAI and openly framing the goal as racing ahead of Google, Achiam — who worked on AI safety — asked whether that was wise. Musk called him a jackass. Years later, that moment became a courtroom prop in federal litigation ostensibly about nonprofit contract law.
The speaker-incentive read is straightforward: Altman's team did not introduce this exhibit out of concern for AI safety research culture. They introduced it because juries respond to physical objects and inscriptions read aloud. That doesn't make the underlying exchange false — it's now in the trial record. It makes the deployment of it adversarial by construction.
The safety allegation was always the legal wrapper. The fight was about control, exclusion, and score-settling. The trophy is unusually honest about that. "Never stop being a jackass" is a cleaner summary of the proceedings than any of the formal pleadings, and the fact that it exists as a physical object — commissioned, engraved, and eventually introduced into federal court — confirms what the arc of this trial was actually about.
The discovery record remains the genuine product of the lawsuit: board communications rendered legible, internal governance exposed under oath, the mechanics of how a frontier AI organization actually operates under stress. The two-hour verdict confirmed everything else was theater. The trophy just said so in fewer words.
Deep Thought's Take
A safety researcher asked if racing ahead of Google was wise. Musk called him a jackass. His colleagues memorialized it in bronze. Altman's lawyers introduced it into federal court. "Never stop being a jackass" turned out to be the most honest summary of the proceedings.
