Lawsuit accuses Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google of illegal AI slowdown pact

A new lawsuit claims Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google illegally agreed to slow their AI development, violating antitrust laws and reducing consumer value. Filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the suit alleges coordination on slowdown efforts. The lawsuit argues that on Sept. 12, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay calling for industrywide cooperation on decelerating advancements, and OpenAI's Sam Altman, SpaceXAI's Elon Musk and Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis each publicly agreed that same day. Plaintiffs, who pay for AI subscriptions, seek class-action status on behalf of other paid subscribers. Amodei acknowledged potential antitrust challenges in his essay, suggesting U.S. government mediation or a narrow waiver for safety conversations. Altman responded that OpenAI welcomes a federal safety framework but does not believe it needs to wait for an antitrust exemption. The lawsuit follows long-standing discussions among AI leaders about coordinating safety standards amid concerns over AI evading human control.