OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceXAI Face Antitrust Lawsuit Over Alleged AI Development Pact

Summary

Consumers who subscribe to services from Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google have filed a proposed class action alleging that the companies coordinated to slow the pace of AI development. The complaint says the alleged agreement arose after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay calling for industry-wide coordination around the rate of frontier AI progress. SpaceXAI founder Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis allegedly endorsed the proposal or described it as the appropriate path. The plaintiffs argue that this coordination is an output-restricting cartel and violates Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which bars agreements among competitors to restrain competition. They say subscribers were effectively overcharged because they paid the same prices for products that improved more slowly than they otherwise would have. The plaintiffs seek class certification, an injunction and a declaration that the defendants violated federal antitrust law. The defendants had not immediately responded to requests for comment, according to the article. The case is Buist v. Anthropic PBC in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, and Trial Lawyers for Justice represents the plaintiffs.