Page 133 of The Proving Ground

“Andy Spiegel, who runs development on the business side.”

“Okay, so you went from lifestyle apps to business apps. What kind of business apps?”

“Again, you’re asking me to violate company rules by revealing proprietary information.”

“Okay, let me ask you this, then. Hypothetically, if I owned a car dealership and I wanted to put an AI receptionist on my website to help visitors navigate the site, would I go to Tidalwaiv’s lifestyle or business division for that?”

“Business, obviously.”

“And so you’re telling this jury that moving from programming a generative AI companion for children to a car-dealer chatbot was a lateral move?”

“I got the same paycheck, okay? And the business applications are far more—”

Mitchell Mason objected, saying I was twisting the witness’s answers, and the judge sustained it.

“Move on, Mr. Haller,” she said. “I think you’ve made your points here.”

I was glad the judge had announced in front of the jury that I had scored some points. I pivoted in a new direction.

“Okay, moving on,” I said. “Mr. Whittaker, you are fairly active on social media, are you not, sir?”

“Uh,activeis a pretty general word,” Whittaker said. “And I’m not sure what it’s got to do with this.”

“Okay, then, very specifically, do you frequent the Reddit threads on artificial intelligence?”

“I’ve been on those boards, yes, but I wouldn’t say frequently.”

Whittaker’s coyness seemed misplaced. He must have been told by the Masons that I had put several of his Reddit posts into discovery. He knew they were coming, so I didn’t understand why he didn’t just acknowledge that he was often on the platform. Maybe this just further revealed his combative personality, or maybe he knew what else I had gathered on him outside of the discovery materials.

“Whether it’s frequent or not, can you tell the jury what username you post under on Reddit?” I asked.

“Well, I’ve used a few over the years,” Whittaker said.

Evasive again. I loved it.

“How about wiseacre-twenty-three?” I asked. “Was that one of your usernames on Reddit? A play on the name Whittaker?”

“Uh, it might have been,” Whittaker said. “Like I said, I don’t go on there very often.”

“My investigator found sixty-seven posts from wiseacre-twenty-three on the ‘artificial intelligence’ and ‘AI watch’ threads on Reddit in the past three years. Some of them were signed Nate, some NW. Five contain the phraseat Tidalwaivorhere at Tidalwaiv. Are you saying these posts were not made by you?”

“I’m saying I can’t remember every post I’ve ever made and every username I’ve ever used.”

Whittaker looked at the jury and shook his head like he didn’t understand why these questions were so important. I loved that too.

“You played on the Project Clair softball team as part of the Tidalwaiv intramural program, correct?” I asked.

“Uh, yes, for a couple seasons,” Whittaker said suspiciously.

“You also played against other Silicon Valley tech teams, right?”

“Yes. For a time. But I don’t think it has to do with this.”

“You put the nameWiseacreon the back of your jersey, did you not?”

Whittaker didn’t answer at first. He acted like he was trying to recall some distant, unimportant factoid.

“I really can’t remember,” he finally said.