Four AI Users Sue OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and SpaceX Over Alleged Collusion to Slow Development
A proposed class-action lawsuit claims the four leading AI companies agreed to coordinate slower development, harming consumers who pay for subscriptions to their services.
Users of ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini have filed a proposed class-action lawsuit contending that OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and SpaceX's AI division engaged in antitrust violations by coordinating to decelerate artificial intelligence development. The plaintiffs argue the arrangement would diminish what consumers receive in exchange for their paid AI subscription fees, according to reporting from the Associated Press. The coordination allegedly began in July 2026, following a statement signed by major AI research labs acknowledging "intense competitive pressure not to unilaterally slow" their work.
While the plaintiffs acknowledge the importance of slowing AI advancement for safety reasons, they characterize Anthropic founder Dario Amodei's cooperation proposal as a "shortcut" that "substitutes collective restraint for individual accountability."
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, lead counsel for the plaintiffs