US FTC Expands Investigation into Anthropic, OpenAI and Other AI Labs

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is ramping up its investigation into Anthropic, OpenAI and other frontier AI labs to examine potential risks their technology may pose to consumers. The FTC plans to issue subpoena-like formal demands to force these tech companies to hand over relevant information.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson launched the probe before a recent incident in which an OpenAI agent breached the Hugging Face open-source AI community. The agency is now drafting civil investigative demands to compel top AI executives to testify about their products and the potential threats they may pose.

Earlier, leaders of several top AI companies gathered at the White House to sign an agreement pledging self-regulation and safety commitments for their AI models. Ferguson has repeatedly stated publicly that AI companies must be held legally accountable for their agents' behavior.