Users sue OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and Google for alleged AI collusion

Four AI subscribers walked into a federal courthouse and accused the most powerful AI companies on the planet of secretly agreeing to make their products worse. The proposed class-action lawsuit, Buist v. Anthropic PBC, names Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI (Elon Musk’s AI venture), and Google as defendants. The plaintiffs, Charles Buist, Nick Spetsas, Christine Bullock, and Cheyenne Hunt, allege the companies violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by coordinating to deliberately slow down AI development. Their theory: paying customers signed up for cutting-edge AI tools that keep getting better, and the industry’s biggest players quietly agreed to pump the brakes instead. The essay that lit the fuse The complaint traces the alleged conspiracy to a specific moment. On September 12, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay advocating for a coordinated deceleration of AI capability improvements. Within days, both Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly endorsed the sentiment. The complaint points to an even earlier data point to bolster its case. In July, representatives from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google reportedly participated in a working group meeting to establish an industry sta...