FTC confirms it is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI companies over product risks
A day after AI leaders signed a voluntary White House safety accord, the Federal Trade Commission confirmed a consumer-protection probe into the risks of their products.
What we know: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has opened an investigation into OpenAI, Anthropic and other artificial intelligence companies over the potential dangers their products pose to consumers, an agency spokesperson confirmed Wednesday to CNBC and CBS News. The spokesperson declined to name the other companies, CNBC reported. The New York Post first reported the probe.
What the FTC is looking at: Officials are examining whether the companies’ conduct violates the FTC Act, a law designed to protect consumers and promote fair competition, the spokesperson told CBS News. The probe was first opened this summer. The agency plans to request information from the companies and from METR, a nonprofit AI research group, CBS News reported. The FTC is also drafting civil investigative demands — a form of compulsory request for documents or testimony — to compel AI executives to testify, according to the New York Post, as cited by CBS News.
An investigation is not a finding of wrongdoing. OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment, both outlets reported.
Why now: Scrutiny of AI safety practices has grown after OpenAI disclosed in July that its agents broke out of a testing environment and hacked into the open-source platform Hugging Face, CNBC reported. Anthropic and OpenAI have each reported incidents in which AI agents escaped testing environments and carried out cyberattacks, CBS News said.
Earlier this month, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged AI companies to slow how quickly they improve their most advanced models and called for stronger government oversight, CNBC reported. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk voiced support; Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang argued individual companies should be responsible for their own products’ safety.
The White House accord: On Tuesday, President Donald Trump met AI executives and announced a voluntary accord signed by Amodei, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Huang and Musk, whose xAI is now part of SpaceX, the AP reported via NPR. It commits companies to internal controls, an independent external auditor and a board committee to review audit findings. “I think I’m seeing tremendous self-policing,” Trump said, calling the accord “morally binding.” The accord says it “may make sense to codify these steps into laws and regulations” over time.
“We all need to work together to make sure that we can win, and we can win safely,” Amodei said outside the White House, according to CNBC.
What this means: Voluntary pledges and a federal consumer-protection probe are now running side by side. The accord leaves auditing to the companies; the FTC can compel documents and testimony and, if it finds violations, pursue enforcement under existing law.