A federal lawsuit filed in the Northern District of California accuses Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google of colluding after public appeals by industry leaders to "pace" AI development. Plaintiffs say Dario Amodei's call for "industry-wide coordination," endorsed by Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Demis Hassabis, may constitute an illegal agreement under U.S. antitrust law. The suit — filed by four plaintiffs including attorney Cheyenne Hunt — seeks to prevent private pacts from replacing transparent government oversight and may pursue class-action status.
AI Giants Sued Over Calls to 'Pace' Development — Plaintiffs Allege Antitrust Collusion
Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, Google sued over call to ‘pace’ AI development
SACRAMENTO, California — A federal civil lawsuit filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accuses major AI companies Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google of colluding after public appeals by industry leaders to coordinate a slowdown in artificial intelligence development.
What the Complaint Alleges
The complaint centers on public remarks by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei earlier this month urging "industry-wide coordination" to "pace the frontier" of AI progress. That plea was publicly endorsed by SpaceXAI head Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis. Plaintiffs say those public statements, taken together, amount to an unlawful agreement among competitors under U.S. antitrust law.
Plaintiffs and Legal Goals
The suit was filed on behalf of four plaintiffs by attorney Nick Rowley in the Northern District of California. Rowley said the case aims to prevent "private self-serving agreements between the world's most powerful 'for profit' technology companies" from allowing AI to "quickly spin out of human control."
"Humanity deserves iron-clad safeguards when it comes to extinction-event threats such as nuclear warfare and now the biggest risk to mankind in history," Rowley said. "The rule of law should be established transparently and lawfully by our government, with accountability to the public."
One of the named plaintiffs is lawyer Cheyenne Hunt, who previously helped expose allegations of sexual misconduct against public figures earlier this year. She is joined by Florida attorneys Charles Buist and Nick Spetsas, and California resident Christine Bullock. The filing indicates the plaintiffs may seek class-action status to represent others who could be harmed by any coordinated decision to slow AI development.
Context and Response
The industry leaders' public calls to slow AI followed warnings from current and former AI researchers who said the technology, if allowed to advance unchecked, could pose potentially existential risks. The complaint frames the alleged coordination as a private agreement that should not substitute for transparent, accountable government regulation.
OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceXAI and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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