United News of Bangladesh

Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google allegedly reached an illegal agreement to slow AI development, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in the US District Court for Northern California. The proposed class-action suit says the companies violated antitrust laws by coordinating efforts to slow development, potentially reducing the value of paid subscriptions to ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Gemini. The complaint points to Sept 12, when Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for industry cooperation on slowing advances for safety. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk and Google DeepMind chair Demis Hassabis publicly supported the proposal. Plaintiffs also cite a July statement signed by senior AI-lab employees acknowledging competitive pressure against unilateral slowdowns and urging governments to support a global effort. They say companies may independently prioritize safety but cannot collectively restrain competition. Lead lawyer Nick Rowley warned that private agreements could threaten AI safety. The companies did not immediately comment. Amodei had acknowledged antitrust concerns and suggested government mediation or a limited waiver. Altman backed a federal safety framework. President Donald Trump opposed regulation but announced an AI task force and AI czar. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley rejected any antitrust exemption, warning collaboration could stifle competition.