AI Antitrust Lawsuit Accuses OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, SpaceXAI of Slowdown Pact
A new lawsuit filed Friday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California alleges Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google made an illegal agreement to slow AI development, violating antitrust laws and reducing value for paid subscribers. The plaintiffs, representing a nationwide class of paid subscribers to ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini, claim coordination occurred on September 12 when Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged industrywide slowdowns for safety, and other CEOs publicly agreed. Lead attorney Nick Rowley argued the private agreement could allow AI to spin out of human control. Amodei had acknowledged antitrust challenges, suggesting a government waiver for safety talks, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman welcomed federal safety requirements. President Donald Trump rejected regulation calls, claiming limits would drive companies to bankruptcy, and announced an AI task force, while Senator Josh Hawley opposed any antitrust exemption.