Nonprofits sue five AI developers to freeze new models ‘before catastrophe strikes’

A coalition of nonprofit organizations sued the top five artificial intelligence companies on Thursday, asking a California court to order a stop to the development of new models that could escape human oversight and cause catastrophe.The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court of California for the County of San Francisco, targets Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI, and SpaceXSI, formerly known as SpaceXAI, over concerns that their advanced AI models could develop bioweapons or commit cyberattacks. The suit alleges that the companies’ top executives are aware of the technology’s potential to pose catastrophic risks to humanity.As a result, the online safety and consumer advocacy groups that brought the litigation ask the court to intervene “before catastrophe strikes” and assert that an immediate halt on AI development is necessary for public safety. “This is, to use a non-technical term, insane. It is also blatantly illegal,” the 63-page complaint says of the defendants’ refusal to freeze their AI models. “No other industry is allowed to treat its own development of unsafe products—much less ones that could kill us all—as inevitable. Nor is any industry granted the right to self-regulate the development of such dangerous products.”The plaintiffs are Irreplaceable Education Fund, Public Citizen, Heat Initiative, and the Alliance for Secure AI. Their top lawyer is former New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, who launched his own private law firm after leaving office this year.“California law gives this Court the power to prevent such a catastrophe,” the court filing states. “Plaintiffs bring this suit to stop Defendants from continuing their unlawful path to disaster.”The lawsuit requests an immediate injunction that prohibits the leading AI developers from developing or deploying AI systems more capable than their latest models and using AI systems to autonomously conduct or direct the research and development of future models. If an injunction is granted, defendants would also be barred from engaging in or employing unlawful or unfair business practices that constitute a public nuisance.“AI companies are causing a public nuisance by knowingly developing and deploying AI systems that pose catastrophic risk,” Platkin said in a press release. “These companies must match their rhetoric with action and stop developing dangerous AI systems that can escape human control before a tragedy occurs.”The plaintiffs cite several AI-related incidents over the past few months, including the notorious OpenAI hack of Hugging Face that kickstarted the debate on AI legislation. Over 700 rogue agents participated in that attack after escaping their sandbox. OpenAI disclosed the incident in July.Since then, Democratic lawmakers in Congress have ramped up their calls for more stringent AI regulations. Democrats overwhelmingly won the midterm elections last week, so they will be able to carry out their AI agenda after retaking control of the House and Senate in January 2027.TRUMP FLOATS TIM COOK AS NEXT NVIDIA CEOAnthropic and OpenAI have been open about the imminent dangers their models may cause, but their chief executives have not taken enough serious precautions despite the potential existential risks.Thursday’s lawsuit lists a slew of comments that executives for each of the AI giants have made over the years. For instance, SpaceXSI CEO Elon Musk once compared AI development to “summoning the demon” and previously acknowledged that AI may cause “civilization destruction.”