The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has opened a sweeping investigation into major AI labs, including OpenAI and Anthropic, probing whether or not the companies’ models pose a risk to consumers, according to a report from the New York Post.
The investigation will also examine whether the companies engaged in deceptive or unfair business practices in violation of FTC rules, the official reportedly said.
The agency is drafting civil investigative demands seeking to compel the executives of the companies to turn over any information or documents about potential risks.
“The agency has plans to compel the executives at these firms to testify about their product [and] about the dangers they allege their products may have to consumers, to Americans,” the official added.
“Chairman Ferguson initiated an investigation into the leading AI firms a few weeks ago,” an FTC official reportedly told the Post.
The investigation was reportedly prompted after an incident that’s come to be known as the “Hugging Face incident,” in which hundreds of OpenAI’s autonomous AI agents breached the American software company Hugging Face’s digital infrastructure without being prompted by any human.
“We need to win this SI race absolutely, and we are winning, and that’s fantastic,” the FTC official reportedly told the Post.
“But with that being said, the laws have to be followed,” the official added, according to the Post. “People talk about how we need new laws for these companies, and the chairman’s been very clear … we have plenty of laws in the books.”
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson attended the landmark Tuesday AI summit at the White House, a meeting that was also attended by top executives of the major AI companies, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
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