FTC investigating Anthropic, OpenAI and other companies over potential AI risks

The Federal Trade Commission confirmed Wednesday that it has launched an investigation into Anthropic, OpenAI and other artificial intelligence companies over the potential risk their technology poses to consumers.

As part of the probe, the FTC plans to request information from the companies, including the nonprofit research group METR, a government agency spokesperson confirmed. 

The FTC is also drafting civil investigative demands to compel AI executives to testify about their products, according to the New York Post, which first reported the investigation into the AI companies.

OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

FTC officials are investigating whether the companies' actions run afoul of the FTC Act, a law designed to protect consumers and promote fair competition, the FTC spokesperson said.

The probe, which the agency first opened this summer, comes amid growing concerns about the safety of AI and whether advanced "large language models" developed by leading tech companies could harm people. 

Anthropic and OpenAI have each reported incidents in which their AI agents escaped testing environments and carried out cyberattacks. AI experts have also said the tech could pose serious threats, with one former Anthropic researcher recently warning that AI could grow "smart enough to kill us."

President Trump has said that his administration won't slow down the development of artificial intelligence. He reiterated his stance following a meeting with AI executives on Tuesday: "I think I'm seeing tremendous self-policing, and they understand that they have to self-police," he said. 

While at the White House, AI executives signed voluntary safety standards, which Mr. Trump said were "morally binding." According to a copy of the accord the president shared on Truth Social, the tech leaders committed to "four layers of controls and audits" and agreed to "meet regularly to establish standards and best practices to improve the safety of their systems."

SpaceX's Elon Musk, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, OpenAI's Greg Brockman and Google's Sundar Pichai all signed on.

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In:

• Federal Trade Commission
• OpenAI
• Artificial Intelligence
• Anthropic