Jeremy O. Harris drunkenly called OpenAI's Sam Altman a Nazi at the Vanity Fair Oscar party
The 'Slave Play' writer confronted Altman over OpenAI's new deal with the Department of Defense.
At the star-studded Vanity Fair Oscar party, playwright Jeremy O. Harris ('Slave Play') made a beeline for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman amidst a crowd including Michael B. Jordan and Timothée Chalamet. According to Page Six, a visibly intoxicated Harris confronted Altman about OpenAI's new partnership with the Department of Defense, accusing the tech mogul of being a Nazi and specifically calling him the 'Joseph Goebbels of the Trump administration.' The incident underscores the intense scrutiny and ethical debates now following AI executives into the most exclusive social settings.
Harris later walked back his specific historical analogy in an email, stating, 'It was late and I had a few too many martinis so I misspoke when I said Goebbels… I should’ve said Friedrich Flick.' Flick was a German industrialist convicted of war crimes at Nuremberg for using his businesses to empower the Nazi regime. This revised comparison shifts the accusation from Nazi propagandist to Nazi profiteer, directly linking Altman's defense contract to historical war profiteering. The viral confrontation signals that criticism of AI's military applications has moved from tech forums to the mainstream cultural stage.
- Jeremy O. Harris confronted Sam Altman at the Vanity Fair Oscar party, calling him a Nazi over OpenAI's Defense Department deal.
- Harris later clarified he meant to compare Altman to Friedrich Flick, a Nazi industrialist convicted of war crimes, not propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
- The incident highlights the escalating mainstream ethical backlash against AI companies partnering with military and defense agencies.
Why It Matters
Ethical debates around AI are now impacting industry leaders' public personas and sparking mainstream cultural backlash.