Antitrust lawsuit accuses OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and SpaceXAI of slowing AI development
Four major AI companies—Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google—face a new antitrust lawsuit filed Friday in California, alleging they coordinated to slow AI development in violation of antitrust laws. The complaint cites a September 12 essay by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urging industry cooperation on slowing advances for safety, which was publicly supported by OpenAI's Sam Altman, SpaceXAI's Elon Musk, and Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis. Four paid subscribers to ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini seek class-action status, claiming such coordination reduces competition and consumer value. The lawsuit adds legal pressure amid ongoing AI safety debates, while President Donald Trump has rejected stricter regulation, emphasizing the need for American labs to outpace Chinese competitors and announcing plans for an AI task force and "AI Czar."