Gas ⁠station ​operators including BP, Circle K, Marathon, 7-Eleven, Walmart and Albertsons were sued on Monday by California drivers ⁠who accused them of using artificial intelligence to boost prices at the pump.

According to a proposed class action, the defendants ⁠violated California’s main antitrust law, the Cartwright Act, by using an AI-based tool that ​uses data from competing gas ‌stations to “coordinate high prices ‌and wring more money from the pockets of consumers”.

The lawsuit in the ‌Sacramento federal court said the scheme violated assembly bill 325, a California law that took effect on 1 January and was intended to crack down on algorithmic price fixing.

Drivers said gas prices have risen as much as 30 cents a gallon in areas where high percentages of stations ‌use the AI tool, which comes from a company called Kalibrate.

When I moved to Taos nearly two decades ago, every gas station in town, regardless of branding, was owned by the same company. Prices were significantly higher than the rest of Northern New Mexico.

Then the Smith’s (a Kroger brand) a couple of blocks from the Plaza added a fueling station to the store, charging market rates and causing the gravy train to end as prices were forced down townwide.

Funny what actual competition does. Here, no such chance of a drop. They’ll stop using “AI” and go back to colluding the old-fashioned way: untraceable backroom deals. That’s assuming they lose in court with a phalanx of lawyers and essentially unlimited money to throw at the suit.