Nonprofits sue San Francisco-based OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and SpaceXSI, demanding a halt to advanced AI development

Lawsuit filed against five AI companies

A coalition of nonprofit organizations — Alliance for Secure AI, Irreplaceable Education Fund, Public Citizen and Heat Initiative — has filed a lawsuit in the San Francisco Superior Court against five leading artificial intelligence developers: Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI and SpaceX Super Intelligence (SpaceXSI). The plaintiffs are demanding a halt to the development of advanced AI models, arguing that the technology may pose a serious threat to humanity. Anadolu reported this.

The plaintiffs' arguments

Alliance for Secure AI CEO Brendan Steinhauser accused tech company executives of continuing to build increasingly sophisticated AI systems despite having previously acknowledged their potentially catastrophic consequences. In his view, the companies are accelerating the development and commercialization of powerful AI technologies without being able to guarantee their safety and reliable control; he also pointed to the growing use of AI systems to conduct their own research and development.

'Recursive self-improvement' and quotes from the lawsuit

The lawsuit argues that the risks may grow as developers increasingly use AI models to design and improve the next generations of AI systems with limited human oversight. This process, known as 'recursive self-improvement,' according to the plaintiffs, may make advanced technologies increasingly difficult to control. 'The defendants know that these systems do not always act in accordance with the intentions of their creators,' the lawsuit states. 'And the defendants know that there is no reliable method of controlling their AI systems and preventing harm.'

Executive statements and context

The plaintiffs also cite past statements by industry leaders: in 2015, OpenAI chief Sam Altman warned that AI could potentially lead to the end of humanity, while Anthropic chief Dario Amodei in 2025 put the probability of catastrophic consequences from AI development at 25%. Against the backdrop of growing attention to AI safety, the executives emphasize their commitment to responsible development: in October, Altman, Amodei and SpaceX chief Elon Musk spoke in favor of a coordinated slowdown of AI development. Their statements followed a warning from an Anthropic researcher who estimated the risk of human extinction from AI at 10%. None of the five companies had responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit at the time of publication.