Lawsuit accuses OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and SpaceXAI of colluding to slow AI development
A new lawsuit filed Friday in California federal court accuses Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google of illegally coordinating to slow AI development, allegedly reducing the value of paid subscriptions for services like ChatGPT and Claude. The plaintiffs claim the companies violated antitrust laws by agreeing to decelerate progress following a Sept. 12 essay by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, which was publicly endorsed by rivals including OpenAI's Sam Altman and Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis. The suit seeks class-action status for all paid subscribers. The plaintiffs clarify they do not oppose the companies seeking government regulation or antitrust exemptions, but argue private agreements among competitors are anticompetitive. President Donald Trump has rejected such regulation calls, while Senator Josh Hawley has voiced opposition to granting antitrust exemptions for collaboration.