Full Breakdown
AI Giants Sued Over Alleged Antitrust Collusion to Slow Development
By Drooid · · How we work
Alleged Antitrust Violation
A lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleges that Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google violated federal antitrust law by agreeing to decelerate their artificial-intelligence development. Four named plaintiffs who pay for subscriptions to ChatGPT, Claude, Grok or Gemini bring the case on behalf of a proposed nationwide class of other paid subscribers. The complaint contends that the coordinated slowdown reduces the value consumers receive from their AI subscriptions.
Background of the Slowdown Proposal
The alleged coordination centers on an essay published by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei that called for industry-wide cooperation to curb rapid AI progress in favor of enhanced safety. On the same day, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk, and Google DeepMind co-founder and chair Demis Hassabis each issued public statements endorsing the proposal. Amodei’s essay acknowledged possible antitrust challenges and suggested that the U.S. government could mediate the discussions or issue a narrow waiver for certain safety-related conversations.
Company Responses
Representatives for Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and SpaceXAI did not respond to requests for comment at the time of filing.
Political Commentary
President Donald Trump dismissed calls for AI regulation on social media, describing such efforts as a “conspiracy” that could drive companies into “oblivion and bankruptcy.” He announced the formation of an AI task force and the appointment of an “AI czar,” though details remain sparse. Republican Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)
Verbatim Quote
“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,” — Nick Rowley, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs