Four nonprofit groups on Thursday sued OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and SpaceXSI in San Francisco Superior Court, asking a judge to stop the companies from developing or deploying AI systems more capable than those they already have. Reuters, CBS News, and POLITICO reported the filing. The plaintiffs are Public Citizen, Heat Initiative, the Alliance for Secure AI, and the Irreplaceable Education Fund. CBS News identified SpaceXSI as SpaceX Super Intelligence.
The complaint, dated Nov. 12, is a request for injunctive relief under California’s Unfair Competition Law, Business and Professions Code section 17200. The groups allege that the companies’ practices are unlawful because they constitute a public nuisance, and that the same practices are independently unfair. They cite risks they describe as catastrophic, including loss of control and cyberattacks, and argue that company executives have already warned about those dangers. “Defendants know these systems do not consistently act in accordance with their intentions,” the complaint says. “And Defendants know there is no reliable method to control their AI systems and prevent them from causing harm.”
The prayer for relief asks for an immediate injunction forbidding the defendants “from developing or deploying AI systems more capable than their most capable systems as of the date of this Complaint,” and a second injunction forbidding them “from using AI systems to autonomously conduct or direct the research and development of more capable AI systems.” The complaint also seeks broader injunctions against unlawful or unfair practices and attorneys’ fees. It does not seek damages. The as-filed copy leaves the case number blank, and no court order granting the freeze was reported.
Brendan Steinhauser, chief executive of the Alliance for Secure AI, said in a statement quoted by CBS News that executives “have warned us that their own frontier models pose catastrophic risks” and “are now handing over AI research and development to AI itself.” A Meta spokesperson declined to comment, Reuters reported. Representatives of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and SpaceXSI did not immediately respond to Reuters’s requests for comment. CBS News said the companies named in the suit did not immediately respond to its request.