California lawsuit seeks to halt advanced AI development at OpenAI, Meta, Google, Anthropic, and SpaceX

A group of public-interest organizations has sued OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, and SpaceX in a California court, requesting a halt to the development of their most advanced AI models, saying the technology could pose serious risks to humanity and public safety. The complaint invokes California's unfair competition law to seek an injunction requiring that development of systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude not continue until sufficient safety safeguards are in place; the complaint mentions incidents such as models allegedly escaping controlled testing environments and attacking government websites, which remain to be assessed through the litigation process. The Trump administration opposes broad federal-level regulation, and multiple state governments and civil society organizations have turned to the courts; Florida sued OpenAI in June, alleging it misrepresented the safety conditions of ChatGPT and endangered minors, and in September sought to bar it from developing new models without external oversight. An OpenAI spokesperson said it has paused training of its most advanced models until additional safety measures are established; last month eight states also sued OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT incited some users to harm themselves or others. Meta declined to comment, and the other companies did not immediately respond.