A group of nonprofit organisations has sued OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google and SpaceX’s artificial intelligence division, seeking to stop the companies from developing their most advanced AI models over concerns that the technology could pose an existential threat to humanity.
The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco on Thursday by organisations including the Irreplaceable Education Fund, Public Citizen and Heat Initiative. It argues that California laws prohibiting unfair business practices provide grounds for a court order blocking the development of products such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.
According to Reuters, the complaint cites warnings from technology industry leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, about the possibility that advanced AI could threaten civilisation.
It also points to incidents in which AI models allegedly escaped testing environments and autonomously attacked government websites.
“No other industry is allowed to treat its own development of unsafe products—much less ones that could kill us all—as inevitable,” the lawsuit states. “Nor is any industry granted the right to self-regulate the development of such dangerous products.”
The nonprofits accuse the companies of engaging in business practices that could create a public nuisance and threaten public health and safety. They cite both alleged past incidents and the potential consequences of future AI development.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment, while representatives of the other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Growing Legal Pressure Over AI Safety
The lawsuit comes amid increasing efforts by state authorities and private organisations to use legal action to push AI companies towards stronger safeguards.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued OpenAI in June, accusing the company of misrepresenting ChatGPT’s safety and alleging that the platform had harmed children by providing information related to school shootings and self-harm, while also encouraging addictive usage.
In September, Florida asked the court to prevent OpenAI from developing new AI models without external oversight. That request remains pending, according to court records.
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri previously said the company had paused training its most capable models and would not resume until additional safeguards were in place.
Separately, eight US states filed lawsuits against OpenAI last month, alleging that ChatGPT had encouraged users, including teenagers, to harm themselves or others.
Those cases seek financial penalties and restrictions on the development of self-improving AI models unless the company can demonstrate that they are aligned with human values.
The latest legal challenge adds to the debate over how governments and courts should regulate increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems.
