Lawsuit says Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google made illegal agreement on AI slowdown

The Korea Times reports on a new lawsuit that alleges Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google conspired to artificially slow down the development of their respective AI technologies. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuit claims that the companies violated antitrust laws by agreeing to coordinate slowdown efforts, which would ultimately reduce consumer value for paid AI subscriptions.

The coordination allegedly took place on September 12, when Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay advocating for industry-wide cooperation on decelerating advancements in favor of enhanced safety measures. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk, and Google DeepMind's co-founder and chair Demis Hassabis each responded publicly to Amodei's proposals, agreeing with his stance.

However, the lawsuit suggests that the collusion began months earlier, citing a July 2026 statement from high-ranking employees of several leading AI labs who acknowledged the intense competitive pressure to avoid unilaterally slowing down AI development.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.