New Delhi [India], September 19 (ANI): Leading artificial intelligence companies Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google face allegations of collusion after calls emerged for a coordinated slowdown in AI development, according to a civil lawsuit filed in a United States federal court on Friday.

According to a news report by Politico, the complaint filed in the Northern District Court of California, claims that public statements made earlier this month amounted to an illegal business agreement between competitors under US antitrust law. The matter began with Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei issuing a public plea for 'industry-wide coordination' to 'pace the frontier' of artificial intelligence advancement.

The call drew prompt agreement from SpaceXAI head Elon Musk, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, and Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis. The legal filing alleges that this collective agreement among industry rivals violates the Sherman Act by forming an unlawful pact to restrict competition.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of four plaintiffs, including lawyer Cheyenne Hunt, Florida attorneys Charles Buist and Nick Spetsas, and California resident Christine Bullock. In the complaint, the plaintiffs signalled that they intend to seek class-action status on behalf of other individuals impacted by any corporate decisions to slow down development.

Nick Rowley, one of the lawyers who filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs, stated that the action seeks to stop private arrangements from sidelining regulatory oversight.

Rowley said the case was filed to ensure that 'private self-serving agreements between the world's most powerful 'for profit' technology companies' do not result in AI 'quickly spin[ing] out of human control.'

'Humanity deserves iron clad safeguards when it comes to extinction event threats such as nuclear warfare and now the biggest risk to mankind in history,' Rowley said. 'The rule of law should be established transparently and lawfully by our government, with accountability to the public.'

Plaintiff Cheyenne Hunt publicly addressed the lawsuit on social media platform X, criticising the companies for bypassing legislative scrutiny.

'Today I can publicly announce that I am part of a landmark lawsuit against all of the major AI companies. I'm suing Anthropic, OpenAI, X, and Google because we deserve real AI safety standards, not shady deals cut by an unaccountable cartel of billionaires in a back room,' Hunt said.

'Since July, these companies have been meeting privately to plan a response to growing public pressure for real AI regulation. Then Anthropic's CEO published an essay saying the industry should slow down. Within hours, Musk and Altman said publicly that they agreed,' she stated.

Hunt highlighted that the AI firms are branding it as a safety breakthrough, but it's not. "It's four corporations agreeing not to compete on the one thing regulators were about to force them to adopt - safety standards. This is a blatant violation of the Sherman Act, which outlaws corporations joining forces to dodge public pressure together instead of facing it alone.' 

Hunt further asserted that the arrangement emerged right when lawmakers were preparing binding statutory rules.

'The timing isn't a coincidence, either. This 'deal' was struck at the exact moment lawmakers were gaining real momentum to pass binding AI regulations. So instead of enforceable law, we got a deal cut among the companies themselves - one they wrote, they enforce, and they can rewrite whenever it's in their best interest,' she added. 'This publicly announced pinky promise gave Mike Johnson cover to adjourn the House of Representatives just before they could pass binding legislation on the topic.' 

'If these companies actually believe their products could risk human extinction, how to move forward is not a decision four CEOs get to make behind closed doors, weighing their profit margins against the harms done to users, the economy, and the environment. That's the government's job - with real transparency into how the rules are written and how they are enforced,' Hunt stated. 'So I'm suing. Because rules written by the industry, for the industry, policed by the industry aren't safety standards. They're a grift. And the public should be writing the rules - not four billionaires.' (ANI)