Lawsuit Accuses Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google of Coordinating AI Slowdown

A proposed class action filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accuses Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google of violating antitrust laws by coordinating to slow the pace of their artificial intelligence development, an agreement the plaintiffs say reduces the value consumers receive from paid AI subscriptions.

The lawsuit centers on Sept. 12, when Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay calling for industrywide cooperation to decelerate AI advancements in favor of stronger safety measures. According to the complaint, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk and Google DeepMind co-founder and chair Demis Hassabis each publicly responded that same day in agreement with Amodei's proposals.

Plaintiffs argue that an agreement among the chief rivals in AI that their progress «should be slower than competition would otherwise produce has an anticompetitive effect on consumers.» Lawyers representing four named plaintiffs, who pay for subscriptions to ChatGPT, Claude, Grok or Gemini, are bringing the suit on behalf of a proposed nationwide class of other paid subscribers to those services.

«AI will quickly spin out of human control and could kill us all if we allow AI safety and protocol … to be controlled by private self-serving agreements between the world's most powerful 'for profit' technology companies,» said Nick Rowley, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

Representatives for Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and SpaceXAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

In his essay proposing the slowdown, Amodei acknowledged potential antitrust challenges, writing that it would be helpful for the U.S. government to mediate «or at least enable» cross-lab discussions. The government would not need to participate, he wrote, but would need to «issue a narrow waiver for certain kinds of safety conversations.»

Altman responded on social media that OpenAI welcomes the idea of a «federal framework that sets consistent safety requirements,» but said «we do not believe we need to wait for an anti-trust exemption or legislation to begin the work of providing this confidence.»

While the recent conversations about pacing development were spurred by increasing concerns about AI evading human control, several leaders in the AI space have long discussed developing a shared set of standards or otherwise coordinating to ensure safety efforts remain paramount.

The plaintiffs contend they are not against the AI companies asking Congress, the White House or any other agency to develop AI regulation, nor are they against the companies requesting an antitrust exemption. But achieving that kind of collaboration with the federal government could be an uphill battle.

President Donald Trump rejected calls for regulation on social media, claiming that any efforts to limit the technology are part of a «conspiracy.» He questioned why industry leaders would call for regulation that, he says, «if strongly implemented, will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy.»

Trump said Saturday on social media that he is forming an AI task force and will appoint an «AI czar,» but provided scant detail. The Trump administration has been vocal about wanting American AI labs to outpace and excel past Chinese competition.

While several Democratic leaders and candidates have called for sweeping action on AI regulation, Republicans have largely mirrored Trump's position. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said in a recent Senate hearing that «there is no world» in which he would agree to give «the most powerful companies in the history of the world» an exemption from antitrust laws to collaborate, arguing that they could collude together and stifle competition.

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Delaney Sawyer

Society Reporter

Delaney Sawyer covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Core Memo. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

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