A plot to slow down AI? A complaint accuses OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI of anticompetitive manipulation

Most AI giants are advocating for a slowdown in research on artificial intelligence. For Dario Amodei, the head of Anthropic, it is imperative to ease off before a group of autonomous agents can take control of the Internet in the next 6 to 12 months.Amodei proposes a three-step plan to avert the worst.

This strategy includes an independent audit, a common agreement between companies, and expanded international cooperation, even including China. The startup’s head was quickly joined by Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, Demis Hassabis, cofounder of Google DeepMind, and Elon Musk. All the AI kings are calling for an emergency slowdown in AI research.

Also read: OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and more than 100 companies demand an emergency “global response” to AI cyberattacks

An anticompetitive agreement

A complaint, filed on September 12 before a federal court in Northern California, alleges that these public statements are part of a genuine conspiracy intended to bring about a slowdown in AI. The four plaintiffs accuse the AI kings of having entered intoan anticompetitive agreement in July 2026. The agreement was allegedly signed because the AI giants realized they could not ease up on their own without being outpaced by competitors.

The four plaintiffs identify themselves as subscribers to the paid offerings of ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, or Gemini. They claim that the slowdown pactreduces the value of their subscriptions. According to them, the pace of innovation promised by the companies was deliberately slowed following the agreement reached between OpenAI, Anthropic, xAi, and Google.According to CBS News, the lawyers handling the complaint explain that « competition law does not allow competitors to decide among themselves that competition is too dangerous ».

They clarify that they do not oppose each company individually choosing to slow down its own work out of caution. The plaintiffs are targeting only the collective agreement, reached between the companies without any oversight from the authorities, which violates U.S. antitrust laws.

“AI could quickly escape human control and kill us all if we allow AI safety and protocols to be dictated by private, self-serving agreements among the world’s most powerful technology companies”, according to Nick Rowley, the lead attorney handling the case.

Read also: Google’s misstep – Gemini hacked 3 companies during a test that went wrong

A federal framework for overseeing an AI pause

The head of Anthropic had anticipated criticism of this approach. That is why the executive is advocating intervention by the federal government to ensure that all discussions between rival labs are secure. He suggests that Washington serve as a mediator between the different companies. Sam Altman agrees and supports the idea of a “federal framework” setting common safety requirements.

Unlike Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, Meta firmly refuses to scale back AI development.This is also the case for Nvidia, and for Donald Trump, who refuses to let the United States fall behind China. In practice, the president rejected these calls for regulation, describing them as a “conspiracy” and arguing that strict regulation “would drive these companies out of business”.

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Source: CBS News