NEW YORK (AP) — A coalition of online safety and consumer advocacy groups on Thursday sued five of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies to halt further development, alleging the tech giants can’t prevent their own creations from causing “catastrophic” harm.
The lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court follows a midterm election that could bring a moment of reckoning for the fast-moving AI industry, as Democrats who won back control of Congress stress the need to regulate the technology.
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FILE - A Meta logo is shown on a video screen at LlamaCon 2025, an AI developer conference, in Menlo Park, Calif., April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - In this May 1, 2019, file photo a man walks past a Google sign outside with a span of the Bay Bridge at rear in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - Pages from the Anthropic website and the company's logos are displayed on a computer screen in New York on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison, File)
FILE - Attendees gather at the OpenAI DevDay 2026 conference, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
The filing, first reported on by The Associated Press, asks a judge to stop Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI and SpaceXSI from developing or deploying new AI models, pointing to documented examples of cyberattacks and other harmful actions by AI systems and the companies’ own alarming acknowledgments that their technology has the potential to someday destroy humanity.
“No other industry is allowed to treat its own development of unsafe products — much less ones that could kill us all — as inevitable,” reads the complaint from the Irreplaceable Education Fund, Public Citizen, Heat Initiative and the Alliance for Secure AI. “Plaintiffs bring this suit to stop Defendants from continuing their unlawful path to disaster.”
The AI industry has generated excitement and stock market gains, but also deep fears that the technology could go rogue and escape human control. Recent incidents of AI agents hacking government websites and companies — including when OpenAI's ChatGPT hacked into another AI company on its own in July — have accelerated those concerns.
President Donald Trump, a proponent of rapid AI development to keep the U.S. ahead of foreign competitors like China, has so far encouraged the companies to police themselves on matters of safety, though he has expressed openness to more guardrails. Congress also has stopped short of regulating the technology, but that may change with its Democratic takeover.
Some CEOs of major AI companies, meanwhile, have voiced support for slowing development of the technology to give safety measures a chance to catch up. They also haven't held back in recognizing the risks. Anthropic's Dario Amodei, for example, last year said he thinks there’s a 1 in 4 chance AI’s future goes “really, really badly,” compared with a 3 in 4 chance it goes well. Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, told Fox News in 2023 that AI could lead to “civilization destruction.”
The plaintiffs, all nonprofits, allege that the companies named in the lawsuit have violated a California unfair competition law by endangering public health and interfering with the use of property such as computer systems. They claim they’ve had to divert resources away from other planned work to address the acute harms threatened by each of the companies’ advancing AI models.
They also warn that the companies' goals of creating AI systems that are broadly as smart as humans and can increasingly manage tasks and learn things autonomously could result in a permanent loss of control of the technology and heighten existential risks to humanity.
The companies named in Thursday's lawsuit didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
FILE - A Meta logo is shown on a video screen at LlamaCon 2025, an AI developer conference, in Menlo Park, Calif., April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - In this May 1, 2019, file photo a man walks past a Google sign outside with a span of the Bay Bridge at rear in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - Pages from the Anthropic website and the company's logos are displayed on a computer screen in New York on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison, File)
FILE - Attendees gather at the OpenAI DevDay 2026 conference, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
An Israeli airstrike hit one of the main hospitals still operating in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing six people and injuring at least 28 more.
In Iran, a body of clerics said it was necessary to consider withdrawing the country from a treaty meant to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. And in France, authorities barred an Israeli politician from entering the country because of his work as a prominent settler leader in the occupied West Bank.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Thursday. Read our full coverage here.
An Israeli airstrike hit one of the main hospitals still operating in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing six people including a surgeon and a 13-year-old boy, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military said the strike on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza targeted a Hamas commander and other militants, without providing evidence. The commander it identified was not among the dead.
The strike hit the hospital’s surgical wing, the ministry and witnesses said. At least 28 people were wounded.
Israeli forces have previously targeted the Nasser Hospital, including an attack in 2025 that killed five journalists — among them Mariam Dagga, who worked for The Associated Press.
The six were among 10 Palestinians killed in four Israeli strikes on Thursday. Health officials reported strikes on two cars in Deir al-Balah and Gaza City and a building in Jabaliya. The Israeli military said the strikes had targeted militants.
Israel’s strikes on Gaza have continued despite a ceasefire deal with Hamas in October 2025. They have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians, bringing the total death toll of the conflict to over 74,600.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts said Thursday that considering withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is an “unavoidable necessity,” given recent repeated threats against the country, state TV reported.
The statement by the assembly, which is a clerical body responsible for appointing and overseeing Iran’s supreme leader, added to growing calls within Iran’s political establishment to reconsider the country’s longstanding nuclear policies.
Iran has enriched uranium to near weapons-grade levels, but insists its program is only for civilian purposes. It has said nuclear weapons have no place in its military doctrine and the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared them forbidden under Islam.
Yossi Dagan, a prominent Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank, said authorities denied him permission to enter France after he flew to Charles de Gaulle International Airport.
The incident happened last week but was made public Wednesday. France’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Dagan was “subject to an administrative ban from the territory due to his active role in implementing the settlement policy in the West Bank.”
Dagan, who heads one of six Israeli regional councils in the West Bank, said he was undeterred by France’s actions and remained proud to “build the historic homeland of the Jewish people.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the decision by France “completely unacceptable.”
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal and an obstacle to peace by most of the international community. France was one of several European countries this year to step up restrictions on Israeli settlers and settlements.
The British military reported at least two tankers were struck by projectiles in recent days while traversing contested waters near Iran.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center, an agency that monitors maritime safety, said one of the tankers was struck Wednesday on the Strait of Hormuz, northwest of Ras al-Khaimah. The agency reported the crew evacuated safely and no casualties were reported.
In another incident from Tuesday, the UKMTO said a tanker was struck by a projectile in the Persian Gulf. Multiple casualties were taken ashore for medical assistance while the remaining crew was safe and accounted for, the agency said.
The UKMTO didn’t provide more information on the victims or identify the tankers involved in either attack.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
People inspect damage to Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners attend the funeral of Khalid Abu Anza, 53, who was killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike on Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
People walk at Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
