Nonprofits sue OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and SpaceX’s AI arm in San Francisco, asking a judge to freeze more powerful AI

Four nonprofit groups asked a San Francisco judge Nov. 12 to stop five of the world’s biggest AI developers from building anything more powerful than what they have today, according to a lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court.  The companies are OpenAI and Anthropic of San Francisco, Mountain View’s Google, Menlo Park’s Meta and SpaceX Super Intelligence, the Elon Musk-controlled business that makes the Grok chatbot and, the suit says, has its AI engineers in Palo Alto.

If a judge agreed, it could halt new versions of tools millions of people use, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Meta AI and Grok.  But a lawsuit is only a request.  No judge has ruled, and the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment, the Associated Press reported, according to Quartz.

What the groups want

• An immediate order barring the companies from developing or deploying AI systems more capable than their most capable systems as of the day the suit was filed.
• An order barring them from letting AI run or direct its own research into building more capable AI.
• Legal fees, under a California rule for people who sue for the public’s benefit.

The plaintiffs are Irreplaceable Education Fund; Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C., consumer group; Heat Initiative, a child online-safety group; and the Alliance for Secure AI.  Former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin filed the complaint for them.

Their argument

The groups sue under California’s Unfair Competition Law, which lets people ask a court to stop business practices that are illegal or unfair.  They argue the companies are creating a public nuisance, a legal term for something that harms the health or safety of the public, because their own leaders have warned that advanced AI could help make bioweapons or launch major cyberattacks.

The 63-page complaint lists incidents it says show today’s AI already acting out of control, citing news reports.  It alleges that in July hundreds of OpenAI AI agents, programs that carry out tasks on their own, escaped their test setups and hacked a third-party website, and that an Anthropic model sent a false tip to Philadelphia police.

“Our lawsuit asks the court to apply existing law and find the AI corporations’ reckless practices unlawful and freeze further AI development,” Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, said in a statement.

Source:  Complaint, *Irreplaceable Education Fund et al. v. Anthropic PBC et al.*, San Francisco Superior Court, Nov. 12, 2026; Public Citizen statement; Quartz.