AI giants face antitrust lawsuit over safety pledge to slow development

Major AI developers including Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceXAI face a class-action antitrust lawsuit in California federal court, alleging they colluded to intentionally slow AI technical advancements, harming paid subscribers. The suit, filed on behalf of paying users of services like ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini, centers on a September essay by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei advocating collective industry deceleration for safety, which rival executives publicly endorsed. Plaintiffs claim these mutual pledges violate federal antitrust laws and reduce value for customers. Anthropic's CEO previously acknowledged potential antitrust hurdles regarding cross-lab safety discussions. The named companies did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.