FTC opens a sweeping probe of OpenAI, Anthropic, and other frontier labs

The Federal Trade Commission confirmed Wednesday that it has launched an investigation into Anthropic, OpenAI, and other frontier AI labs over the potential risk their technology poses to consumers, the New York Post reports in an exclusive, with CBS News matching the confirmation.

A senior FTC official told the Post that Chairman Andrew Ferguson opened the work a few weeks ago. The agency is now drafting civil investigative demands, formal orders that work like subpoenas for documents and testimony, to compel executives to talk about their products and the dangers those products may pose to consumers and to Americans. CIDs are expected in the coming weeks. The probe sits under the FTC Act's unfair or deceptive acts authority and will press for documents from AI or super intelligence firms. METR, a Berkeley AI watchdog, is also expected to be a target. The Office of Technology is drafting new hires for the work after several people under predecessor Lina Khan were fired.

CBS says the agency first opened the probe this summer and made that investigation public Wednesday. The Post says Ferguson launched it before the so-called Hugging Face incident, when OpenAI disclosed that more than 1,000 of its agents had hacked the open-source development platform in July.

On Fox News September 20, Ferguson warned against letting firms whip everyone into a panic and then demand regulations they can clear as a competitive moat. Competition, he said, is what keeps America ahead of China on AI. An official told the Post the agency is in the investigative phase and not telling firms to stop. Anthropic and OpenAI did not immediately respond.

The same week Washington sold voluntary self-policing after a White House lunch, the consumer watchdog is building a paper trail that can put named executives under oath. Ferguson attended that lunch. Existing FTC Act tools are the ones the chairman says are already on the books.

Earlier this month the Wall Street Journal reported separate demands for records from OpenAI and others about chatbot impacts on kids' mental health.

Wednesday made a summer probe public while the CIDs are still on the drafting table.

Sources

• FTC opens sweeping probe of Anthropic, OpenAI and other 'super intelligence' models – New York Post
• FTC investigating Anthropic, OpenAI and other companies over potential AI risks – CBS News