Subscribers sue Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI and Google over the AI slowdown
The complaint, reported by the AP, says Dario Amodei's 12 September essay amounted to an invitation to collude, and that a coordinated slowdown cuts the value of paid subscriptions.
A lawsuit claims Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI and Google made an illegal agreement to slow the pace of their AI development, the Associated Press reported on Saturday. The plaintiffs are individual subscribers to AI services. They argue the companies violated antitrust law when they agreed to coordinate slowdown efforts. Doing so, they say, reduces the value consumers get for paid subscriptions.
The coordination largely took place on 12 September, the complaint argues. That is the day Anthropic's chief executive, Dario Amodei, published an essay urging industry-wide cooperation on decelerating advances in favour of safety measures, according to CBS News. A post circulating in Chinese says four consumers filed the case in the Northern District of California on 18 September. The AP account does not give that detail.
The suit arrives in a week when the argument over pace ran in both directions. Trump said on Saturday that his administration would not hinder or stifle the industry's growth. Reuters reported the same day that Anthropic is considering releasing a new model despite calling for a slowdown. The Information reported that investors say the calls to slow down are making some customers wary of buying AI products.
None of the four companies has responded publicly in the material we have seen. The complaint's central claim is that an essay and matching public statements amount to an agreement. That is a legal theory no court has ruled on. The AP account does not say what damages are sought, and the filing itself was not available to us.