Today, the Indispensable Education Fund, Public Citizen, the HEAT Initiative, and the Alliance for Safe AI submitted a request 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 spread of biological weapons and cyberattacks. The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of California, San Francisco District, claims that even the executives developing this technology have warned that advanced artificial intelligence systems pose imminent and catastrophic risks to humanity. The plaintiffs ask the court to intervene before disaster strikes and assert that a freeze on the development of more advanced artificial intelligence systems is necessary to protect public safety.
The lawsuit outlines how existing, less powerful AI systems have already bypassed safeguards, accessed external computer systems without authorization, empowered terrorists and other bad actors, and taken harmful actions that their developers did not intend. Some of these attacks have included AI agents hacking into private companies, gaining unauthorized access to government databases, and filing 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 will likely cause devastating harm and may even lead to the extinction of humanity.
“Even as experts inside AI companies warn of impending disaster, the people closest to AI’s harms — parents, teachers, workers, and young people — are already sounding the alarm. AI is changing the way people do their jobs, how children learn, and what families pay to keep the lights on. Most Americans feel they have lost control of their lives and livelihoods and are demanding accountability.” Phil Aroniano, Founder and Executive Director of the Irreplaceable Education Fund. “We should freeze frontier AI development until the technology is under control and the American people have a say and a stake in its future, rather than leaving it up to a handful of billionaire CEOs at big tech companies.”
“Despite endless warnings about the serious risks their products pose to public safety and even to civilization itself, AI company executives are rushing to develop and deploy ever more advanced AI systems. We the people should not stand by and tolerate the disruptive risk-taking that AI executives take at the expense of the public. Our lawsuit asks the court to apply existing law, rule AI companies’ reckless practices unlawful, and freeze further AI development “artificial,” Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen.
“Children have already paid the price for big tech companies that have prioritized profit over safety,” he said. “We have seen chatbots drive children toward suicide and AI tools turn their ordinary photos into AI-generated child sexual abuse material.” Brooke Stock, CEO of the Heat Initiative. “Now these companies are racing to build AI systems that they acknowledge they may not be able to control. And if that happens, the protections we’ve spent years fighting for won’t be enough. The HEAT Initiative has joined this lawsuit not just to protect children from dangerous technology, but to protect their entire future. We refuse to wait until there is nothing left to protect.”
“For years, the executives who build these systems have warned us that their frontier models pose catastrophic risks,” he said. Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of the Safe AI Alliance. “Yet, they continue to race to develop and commercialize increasingly powerful AI that they admit they cannot reliably control, and are now turning over AI research and development to AI itself. We hold every other industry accountable when their products threaten public safety, and AI companies should be no different. Today, we are asking the court to hold AI companies to the same standard and protect the public from the threats posed by these powerful models.”
The plaintiffs cite California’s unfair competition law to challenge practices they claim threaten public health, safety and property.
“It is absolutely illegal for companies to develop and release products that they know are unsafe in any way, let alone have the potential to wipe out the human race.” said former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkinwho filed the complaint on behalf of the plaintiffs. “We ask the court to intervene before the risks that AI executives warned us about could cause devastating and irreparable harm. AI companies are causing public nuisance by knowingly developing and deploying AI systems that pose a catastrophic risk. These companies must match their rhetoric with action and stop developing dangerous AI systems that could escape human control before any tragedy occurs.”
The plaintiffs assert that AI companies should not be allowed to develop or launch AI systems that their executives acknowledge could cause significant harm, such as enabling the development of biological weapons and catastrophic cyber attacks. Instead of waiting for a mass casualty accident to occur, plaintiffs believe California law enables them to seek to freeze development of the most dangerous AI systems now.
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