Trump Announces 'AI Force' as Lawsuit Targets Major AI Firms

What Happened

President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he would create a new entity called an 'AI Force,' describing a potential law enforcement role for the body as public concern over rapid AI development continues to grow. The announcement came on the same day a new lawsuit was filed claiming that Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google had entered into an illegal agreement to slow the pace of their artificial intelligence development.

The AI Force Announcement

Trump made the announcement on Saturday, September 19, 2026, and referenced existing justice system structures in his remarks. He described AI safety warnings as 'hoaxes' and stated he would 'cherish, help' the AI industry. According to Fortune, Trump hinted at a law enforcement role for the AI Force while speaking amid what the publication described as mounting public pressure over AI development. No further structural details about the AI Force, including its budget, staffing, or legislative basis, were disclosed in the announcement as reported.

The Antitrust Lawsuit

A lawsuit filed and reported on Saturday by the Los Angeles Times claims that Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google made an illegal agreement to slow their respective AI development programs. The complaint was filed in connection with antitrust concerns, though the specific legal claims, the plaintiff or plaintiffs, and the court in which the suit was filed were not detailed in the wire reports available at publication time. None of the four named companies issued public statements in response to the lawsuit that were available in the wire reports reviewed.

The lawsuit names four of the most prominent companies in the current AI industry. OpenAI is the developer of the GPT series of models and the ChatGPT platform. Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers, develops the Claude series of models. Google develops the Gemini model family. SpaceXAI, affiliated with Elon Musk's SpaceX, develops the Grok series of AI models.

Separate Anthropic Development

In a separate announcement also reported Saturday, Anthropic named Accenture as its first embedded AI safety evaluator. Under the agreement, Accenture will operate inside Anthropic's facilities to conduct red-team testing of its AI models, a process in which testers attempt to elicit harmful or dangerous outputs from AI systems. Both Anthropic and Accenture each committed 1 billion dollars over five years to the arrangement, bringing the total combined commitment to 2 billion dollars over the five-year period. Startup Fortune reported the partnership but did not provide additional details on the scope of evaluations or which Anthropic models would be assessed first.

Broader Context

The announcements on Saturday follow a period of significant governmental and legal attention on the AI sector in the United States. Recent reporting has noted that OpenAI and Anthropic have separately pushed Congress for AI oversight measures. A summit convened by King Charles brought together Nvidia, OpenAI, and Anthropic to discuss AI safety. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to AI controls at a Washington summit, according to earlier reports.

Trump's position on AI development has been consistent with deregulatory priorities since he returned to office. His administration has not introduced major AI-specific regulatory frameworks, and Saturday's AI Force announcement represents the most concrete structural proposal to date from the White House on AI governance.

Singapore continued to emerge as a regional hub for AI deployment on the same day, with the South China Morning Post reporting that OpenAI, among other major AI firms, has been expanding its forward-deployed engineering presence in the city-state, reflecting a broader industry push to localize AI implementation across the Asia-Pacific region.

What Happens Next

The antitrust lawsuit against Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google is expected to proceed through the federal court system, where the named companies will have the opportunity to respond to the complaint.