AI & Law News for May 7, 2026: Difference between revisions

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a formal '''Complaint in Intervention''' on May 5, 2026, in '''''xAI Corp v. Weiser''''', escalating the federal government's opposition to Colorado's SB 24-205 (the Colorado AI Act). The filing goes beyond the DOJ's earlier April 24 Statement of Interest, making the United States a formal party to the case. The DOJ argues that Colorado's algorithmic discrimination provisions violate the Equal Protection Clause and conflict with federal AI policy. Separately, a federal judge on April 27 paused enforcement of SB 24-205 pending further proceedings.<ref name="doj">[https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-intervenes-xai-lawsuit-challenging-colorados-algorithmic-discrimination DOJ: Justice Department Intervenes in xAI Lawsuit]</ref><ref name="jenner">[https://www.jenner.com/en/news-insights/client-alerts/doj-joins-xai-in-lawsuit-challenging-colorado-ai-act Jenner & Block: DOJ Joins xAI in Lawsuit Challenging Colorado AI Act]</ref>

'''Anthropic''' announced on May 7, 2026 that it has signed an agreement with '''SpaceX''' to access all of the compute capacity at Colossus 1, one of the world's largest AI supercomputers. The deal provides Anthropic with over 300 MW of capacity and more than 220,000 Nvidia GPUs, substantially expanding the company's AI inference capabilities. In conjunction with the deal, Anthropic doubled Claude Code's five-hour rate limits for paid plans and removed peak-hours reductions for Pro and Max plans. The partnership comes amid Anthropic's ongoing dispute with the U.S. government over a supply-chain risk designation, and raises questions about the competitive dynamics between Musk's xAI/SpaceX and Anthropic, which has positioned itself as an AI safety-focused alternative.<ref name="anthropic">[https://www.anthropic.com/news/higher-limits-spacex Anthropic: Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX]</ref><ref name="reuters-spx">[https://www.reuters.com/science/spacexai-give-anthropic-access-its-massive-ai-supercomputer-2026-05-06/ Reuters: SpaceX to give Anthropic access to its massive AI supercomputer]</ref><ref name="axios">[https://www.axios.com/2026/05/06/anthropic-spacex-elon-musk-compute Axios: Anthropic will get compute capacity from Elon Musk's SpaceX]</ref>

'''Meta Platforms''' asked a Los Angeles judge on May 6, 2026, to throw out the landmark social media addiction verdict or order a new trial, arguing that '''Section 230''' of the Communications Decency Act shields it from liability and that the jury's finding was based on the content the plaintiff viewed rather than platform design features. The March 2026 jury verdict had found Meta liable for '''$4.2 million''' and Google for '''$1.8 million''' for negligently designing platforms that harmed a young woman's mental health. Google has also asked the court to set aside the verdict and plans to appeal. The case is the first bellwether trial in a coordinated proceeding involving thousands of similar lawsuits, and the Section 230 defense could reach the Ninth Circuit and potentially the Supreme Court.<ref name="reuters-meta">[https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/meta-asks-california-judge-throw-out-landmark-social-media-addiction-verdict-2026-05-06/ Reuters: Meta asks California judge to throw out landmark social media addiction verdict]</ref><ref name="cna">[https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/meta-asks-california-judge-throw-out-landmark-social-media-addiction-verdict-6104981 Channel News Asia: Meta asks judge to throw out landmark social media addiction verdict]</ref>

Privacy researchers revealed that '''Google Chrome''' has been silently downloading a '''4 GB AI model''' (Gemini Nano) to hundreds of millions of users' devices without consent, notice, or functional opt-out. Forensic analysis by privacy researcher Alexander Hanff confirmed that Chrome profiles accumulated the model within 14 minutes of creation with zero human interaction, and that Chrome automatically re-downloads the model if deleted. Chrome 147's "AI Mode" omnibox pill creates a misleading impression that queries are processed on-device, when in fact AI Mode sends all queries to Google's cloud servers. The installation may violate the EU GDPR and ePrivacy Directive, and a German court ruling in March 2025 established precedent that browser-installed code requires informed user consent.<ref name="privacyguy">[https://www.thatprivacyguy.com/blog/chrome-silent-nano-install/ That Privacy Guy: Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent]</ref><ref name="9to5">[https://9to5google.com/2026/05/06/google-chrome-4gb-storage-ai-details/ 9to5Google: Google Chrome 4GB AI storage, Gemini Nano details]</ref><ref name="techspot">[https://www.techspot.com/news/112309-google-chrome-has-silently-pushing-4gb-ai-model.html TechSpot: Google Chrome has been silently pushing a 4GB AI model]</ref>