On April 27, jury choice started on the Oakland, California, federal courthouse for a high-stakes legal showdown between tech CEOs Elon Musk and Sam Altman. Exterior the constructing, an enormous cardboard cutout of Musk (dripping moist in a pair of swim shorts) stared down onlookers, whereas somebody in a robotic costume led two protestors round in chains.
These visible spectacles are half of a bigger protest that’s rising across the trial—which started with opening arguments on April 28—and the 2 broadly disliked tech bros at its heart. The trial stems from a lawsuit, filed by Musk in 2024, which argues that ChatGPT-maker Open AI and its CEO, Altman, deserted the company’s original mission to develop synthetic intelligence for the benefit of humanity and not for profit. Musk offered key funding for OpenAI when it was based again in 2015, earlier than finally falling out with Altman over his imaginative and prescient for the corporate and founding a competitor, xAI, in 2023.
Basically, the trial quantities to 2 of the world’s richest and strongest males duking it out over what the future of AI should look like and airing their personal dirty laundry within the course of. In response, on-the-ground protestors on the courthouse are utilizing artistic artistic endeavors to convey one central message: “Everybody sucks right here.”
“Whoever wins, we lose”
Probably the most distinguished group organizing outdoors the Musk v. Altman trial is Tesla Takedown, an motion coalition that led nationwide protests towards Tesla dealerships in 2025. In a post to the positioning Motion Community, the group introduced a gathering on April 27 that it referred to as “Musk vs Altman: Whoever Wins, We Lose.”
“Elon Musk is dropping the AI arms race as xAI flails and stumbles,” the publish reads. “If he wins this case, he severely damages the chief and provides himself an opportunity to catch up.” In the meantime, it continues, Altman is “serving to Trump construct killer robots and mass surveillance” and bringing the U.S. nearer to a “technofascist” state. “If there’s one factor that’s clear, it’s that EVERYONE SUCKS HERE. And that’s what we’re making our theme!”
The publish concludes with a name for protestors to point out up on the courthouse with indicators and artwork associated to that theme—and attendees didn’t disappoint.
Monday’s protest artwork bore a placing resemblance to protests in Portland, Oregon, towards U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in late 2025, which used weaponized ridiculousness—like animal costumes, memes, and foolish songs—to punch up on the Trump administration. Likewise, protestors outdoors the Oakland courthouse now are utilizing humor to drum up consideration and get their level throughout.
Inflatables, robots, and swimsuit photographs
On Monday, not less than 4 inflatables mocking Musk appeared amid the group. A bright red tube man, within the basic fashion you would possibly see outdoors a automotive wash, waved its arms at passersby whereas emblazoned with the all-caps declaration “ELON SUCKS.” Somebody personalized a pair of inflatable punching baggage with printouts of Musk and Altman’s faces, encouraging individuals to take a shot.
One other tube man was made particularly in Musk’s picture. It parodied a second in January 2025 when, at an inauguration rally for President Trump, Musk appeared to perform a Nazi salute. Videos of this inflatable present its arm repeatedly flinging out to the facet at a 45-degree angle earlier than returning to its chest.
Some protestors outdoors the trial embraced a type of efficiency artwork to make a press release. One video taken on the scene exhibits a person wearing a retro sci-fi robotic costume, full with pink eyes and a boxy head, carrying the title “Altman’s AI enslaver” under a picture of OpenAI’s brand. The robotic holds chains linked to the necks of two different protestors.
Different individuals on the scene opted for extra typical modes of visible protest: There have been loads of indicators that includes mottoes like “Sam Altman, cease mendacity,” and “Stop ChatGPT,” in addition to the aforementioned life-size cutout of Musk in a swimsuit. One of the crucial quietly placing artistic endeavors to emerge was a poster that includes Musk’s face superimposed onto a writhing, multi-limbed creature looming over a mom bottle-feeding her child. Above this picture, the caption reads, “The Creep State is watching!”
The poster is the work of the Creep State, a company that began as a Reddit page devoted to discussing what it calls “tech broligarchy” that has since morphed into an motion group creating artwork to protest figures together with Musk, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Invoice Gates, Marc Andreessen, and others. The group’s work makes use of 1984-esque visuals and messaging, impressed by B-horror and comedian books, to domesticate a way of dread round America’s most controversial figures in tech.
In a press release to Quick Firm, a spokesperson from the Creep State defined, “Guerrilla artwork has been a part of actions towards tyranny and fascism for generations. This time round, the boot of tyranny is being constructed by individuals who wish to change all human creativity, thought, and company with slop generated by machines. We wished to anchor our small piece of this motion in human-generated artwork that sparks the creativeness and encourages individuals to attach otherwise.”
By way of all of those works, protestors are placing a stability between poking enjoyable on the inherent silliness of the feud at its core whereas concurrently drawing viewers’ consideration to the very actual energy that each males wield over the common American.
