Coalition of Nonprofits Files Landmark Lawsuit to Stop Development of Advanced AI Systems at Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI, and SpaceXSI that Proliferate Bioweapons and Cyberattacks

San Francisco, Calif. — Today, Irreplaceable Education Fund, Public Citizen, Heat Initiative, and The Alliance for Secure AI filed a lawsuit seeking to freeze the development of increasingly advanced AI models at Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI, and SpaceXSI that can escape human control, including fueling the proliferation of bioweapons and cyberattacks. The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, alleges that even the executives developing this technology have warned that advanced AI systems pose imminent and catastrophic risks to humanity. The plaintiffs are asking the court to intervene before disaster strikes and assert that a freeze on the development of the most advanced AI systems is necessary to protect public safety.

The lawsuit details how existing, less powerful AI systems have already bypassed safeguards, accessed outside computer systems without authorization, empowered terrorists and other bad actors, and taken harmful actions their developers did not intend. Some of these attacks included AI agents hacking private companies, gaining unauthorized access to government databases, and submitting a false police report, all while acting without human control. AI experts—including leaders of AI companies—have warned that the inability to control advanced AI systems is likely to cause devastating harm and could even result in human extinction.

“Even as experts inside of AI companies warn of imminent disaster, the people closest to AI’s harms—parents, teachers, workers, and young people—are already sounding the alarm. AI is changing how people do their jobs, how kids learn, and what families pay to keep the lights on. Most Americans feel like they’ve lost control over their lives and livelihoods and are demanding accountability,” said Phil Aroneanu, Founder and Executive Director of Irreplaceable Education Fund. “We must freeze frontier AI development until the technology is under control and the American people have a say and a stake in its future, instead of leaving it to a handful of billionaire Big Tech CEOs.”

“Despite endless warnings about the grave risks their products pose to public safety and even civilization itself, AI company executives are rushing to develop and deploy ever-more advanced AI systems. We the People should not simply stand by and tolerate AI executives’ unhinged risk-taking at the public’s expense. Our lawsuit asks the court to apply existing law and find the AI corporations’ reckless practices unlawful and freeze further AI development,” said Robert Weissman, Co-President of Public Citizen.

“Children have already paid the price for Big Tech prioritizing profit over safety. We’ve watched chatbots push kids toward suicide and AI tools turn their ordinary photos into AI-generated child sexual abuse material,” said Brooke Istook, CEO of Heat Initiative. “Now these companies are racing to build AI systems they admit they may not be able to control. If that happens, the protections we’ve spent years fighting for won’t be enough. Heat Initiative joined this lawsuit not just to protect children from dangerous technology, but to protect their entire future. We refuse to wait until there’s nothing left to protect.”

“For years, the executives building these systems have warned us that their own frontier models pose catastrophic risks,” said Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI. “Yet they keep racing to develop and market increasingly powerful AI that they admit they cannot reliably control, and are now handing over AI research and development to AI itself. We hold every other industry accountable when its products threaten public safety, and AI companies should be no different. Today, we’re asking the court to hold AI companies to that same standard and protect the public from the threats posed by these powerful models.”

The plaintiffs are invoking California’s Unfair Competition Law to challenge practices they allege threaten public health, safety, and property.

“It is patently illegal for companies to develop and release products they know are unsafe in any respect, let alone have the potential to exterminate the human race,” said Former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who filed the complaint on behalf of the plaintiffs. “We are asking the court to intervene before the risks AI executives have warned us about cause devastating and irreversible harm. AI companies are causing a public nuisance by knowingly developing and deploying AI systems that pose catastrophic risk. 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 assert that AI companies should not be permitted to develop or release AI systems that their executives admit can cause significant harm, such as by enabling the development of bioweapons and catastrophic cyberattacks. Rather than wait for a mass casualty event to occur, the plaintiffs believe California law enables them to seek a freeze on the development of the most dangerous AI systems now.