Justice Haynes scores 3 TDs in 44-11 Georgia Tech win over Mercer

ATLANTA (AP) — Justice Haynes rushed for 141 yards on 22 carries with three touchdowns — two rushing, one receiving — leading Georgia Tech to its first victory of the season, 44-11 over Mercer at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

Georgia Tech (1-2) followed up home defeats to Colorado and Tennessee with an uneven performance for most of the first half, but pulled away thanks to Haynes and quarterback Alberto Mendoza.

“I do think we’ve improved each week," Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key said. "That being said, it was a pretty low starting point, though.”

The Yellow Jackets scored 10 points in the final two minutes before the break to take a 24-3 lead and added three more second-half touchdowns. Mendoza completed 15 of 21 passes for a season-high 249 yards, finding Javien Plummer and Debron Gatling for scoring strikes from 37 and 33 yards out.

“The first half wasn’t our standard," Mendoza said. "I think we could clean a lot of those things up, and at halftime we addressed a lot of those things.”

Zahmari Palode-Gary led Mercer (2-2) with 71 rushing yards on 15 carries.

Georgia Tech did not force a turnover in either of its first two games, but finally found two Saturday. Taje McCoy forced an early fumble with pressure off the edge and freshman Christian Speakman fell on the loose ball. Another freshman, linebacker C.J. Gamble, grabbed Georgia Tech's first interception of the season with an alert play on a low throw.

“I feel like it's been a constant progression just being able to put plays together on defense," McCoy said. "It's just doing my job and making the plays I'm supposed to make, and it's finally starting to show.”

The Yellow Jackets won the turnover battle 2-0, and cashed both in for touchdowns.

Stopping the run was a major concern for the Yellow Jackets heading into Saturday after giving up 299 yards on the ground against Tennessee, and the question is still in the fold after another poor performance. Mercer rushed for 188 yards on 46 attempts, and had six different run plays go for at least 11 yards.

Mercer: The Bears made a quarterback change late in the second quarter. JP Pickles took over and led the Bears on two field goal drives, accounting for 53 rushing yards with an efficient 7-of-11 passing clip for 82 yards.

Georgia Tech: The Yellow Jackets finally got what they were looking for from their star transfer, Haynes. After just 145 total rushing yards and no plays over 20 yards in the first two games, the former Michigan back and projected focal point of Georgia Tech's offense was explosive in open space, highlighted by his 31-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

Mercer: Steps back into Championship Subdivision play at Abilene Christian next Saturday.

Georgia Tech: Opens its Atlantic Coast Conference slate at Stanford next Saturday.

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Georgia Tech defensive lineman Christian Speakman (92) celebrtes his fumble recovery against Mercer in the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Georgia Tech wide receiver Dalen Penson (7) makes the catch agaimnst Mercer cornerback Cameron Goggins (8) in the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Georgia Tech tight end Kevin Roche Jr. (86) makes a catch against Mercer linebacker Ronin Dangler (48) in the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Georgia Tech running back Trelain Maddox (1) runs against Mercer linebacker Evin McDowell (25) in the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Georgia Tech defensive back Daiquan White (4) hits Mercer wide receiver Eric Rasheed (0) in the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Georgia Tech running back Justice Haynes (22) celebrates his touchdown against Mercer in the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A new lawsuit claims Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google made an illegal deal to slow the pace of their respective AI development.

The lawsuit, which was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, argues that the leading AI companies violated antitrust laws when they agreed to coordinate slowdown efforts, and that doing so would reduce the value consumers get for paid AI subscriptions.

The coordination largely took place on Sept. 12, the lawsuit argues, when Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay urging for industrywide cooperation on decelerating advancements in favor of enhanced safety measures. That same day, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk and Google DeepMind's co-founder and chair Demis Hassabis each publicly responded to Amodei's proposals in agreement.

It's clear that an agreement among the chief rivals in AI that their progress “should be slower than competition would otherwise produce has an anticompetitive effect on consumers,” the plaintiffs argue.

Lawyers representing four named plaintiffs, who pay for subscriptions to ChatGPT, Claude, Grok or Gemini, are bringing the suit on behalf of a proposed nationwide class of other paid subscribers to those services.

“AI will quickly spin out of human control and could kill us all if we allow AI safety and protocol ... to be controlled by private self-serving agreements between the world’s most powerful ‘for profit’ technology companies,” said Nick Rowley, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

Representatives for Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and SpaceXAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

In his initial essay proposing the slowdown, Amodei acknowledged potential antitrust challenges, writing that it would be helpful for the U.S. government to mediate “or at least enable” these cross-lab discussions. The government wouldn't need to participate, he wrote, but would need to “issue a narrow waiver for certain kinds of safety conversations.”

In response, Altman said on social media that OpenAI welcomes the idea of a “federal framework that sets consistent safety requirements,” but said “we do not believe we need to wait for an anti-trust exemption or legislation to begin the work of providing this confidence.”

While the recent conversations about pacing development were spurred by increasing concerns about AI evading human control, several leaders in the AI space have long talked about developing a shared set of standards or otherwise coordinating to ensure safety efforts remain paramount.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit contend they are not against the AI companies asking Congress, the White House or any other agency to develop AI regulation, nor are they against the companies asking for an antitrust exemption.

But achieving that kind of collaboration with the federal government could be an uphill battle.

President Donald Trump rejected the calls for regulation on social media. He has claimed that any efforts to limit the technology are part of a “conspiracy." He called into question why the industry leaders would be calling for regulation that, he says, “if strongly implemented, will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy.” Trump said Saturday on social media that he is forming an AI task force and will appoint an “AI czar,” but provided scant detail.

The Trump administration has been vocal about wanting American AI labs to outpace and excel past Chinese competition. While several Democratic leaders and candidates have called for sweeping action on AI regulation, Republicans have largely mirrored Trump's position.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said in a recent Senate hearing that “there is no world” in which he would agree to give “the most powerful companies in the history of the world” an exemption from antitrust laws to collaborate, arguing that they could collude together and stifle competition.

This combination of photos shows CEO & Co-Founder of Anthropic Dario Amodei, top left, on Jan. 23, 2025, CEO of Google DeepMind Demis Hassabis, top right, and CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman, bottom left, on June 17, 2026, and CEO of SpaceXAI Elon Musk, bottom right, on Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, Julia Demaree Nikhinson)