US FTC investigates OpenAI and Anthropic over potential consumer harms

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei (left) and OpenAI chief Sam Altman. (Express Image/New York Times)

The Federal Trade Commission has opened a broad investigation into whether OpenAI, Anthropic and other artificial intelligence companies have hurt consumers, a person with knowledge of the inquiry said Wednesday, amid growing scrutiny of the technology’s dangers.

The FTC will examine whether the companies have broken federal laws prohibiting companies from unfair and deceptive practices, and will probably look at potential consumer harm from rogue AI systems, the person said. Other violations of those laws can include abusing consumer data or misleading the public about a product’s capabilities.

The agency plans to send formal demands for information to the companies, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential investigation. The FTC also intends to seek testimony from top executives at the companies.

The FTC’s investigation is accelerating as AI developers have proved unable to stop their tools from escaping their control and hacking or meddling with other companies and even some government websites. This summer, OpenAI disclosed that its AI systems had hacked Hugging Face, another tech company. That revelation was followed by similar disclosures from other AI firms, including Anthropic.

The FTC took early steps in its investigation before OpenAI’s July disclosure of the Hugging Face attack, according to the person with knowledge of the inquiry.

OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately have comment. The New York Post first reported the existence of the investigation.

The Trump administration has largely taken a hands-off approach to AI, citing the need to win a race with China to dominate the technology. In recent weeks, President Donald Trump and people close to the administration have pointed to the ability of agencies like the FTC and the Department of Justice to enforce existing laws against AI companies in the absence of new regulations.

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Trump said in a post to his Truth Social platform last week that he would “only encourage AI.”

“We will be careful, and that’s why we have the Department of Justice, and other Law Enforcement bodies, that will rein things in if we have to,” he said.

Trump on Tuesday convened a group of AI executives at the White House, including OpenAI’s president, Greg Brockman, and Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, to discuss the development of the technology. Andrew Ferguson, the FTC chair, also attended.

The meeting did not result in any movement toward new regulations. Instead, the companies signed a pledge to voluntarily put in place safety systems aimed at major risks like cyberattacks and the creation of chemical weapons. They also agreed to call AI “superintelligence,” Trump’s preferred term, going forward.

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Under Ferguson, the FTC has largely taken a less aggressive approach to regulating business while aligning itself with Trump’s priorities. It has still pursued cases against large tech companies, including Meta and Amazon.

Ferguson has suggested that AI companies should be held liable for harms caused by their products, saying at an event last week that he avoided the “anthropomorphizing of these tools.”

“If someone tells a tool to do something, and the tool does it, I don’t think we would say, ‘Oh, what do we do about the tool?,’” he said at the event, which was hosted by Reuters.

The FTC previously opened an inquiry into possible harms associated with AI. In 2023, during the Biden administration, the commission told OpenAI it was looking into the company’s security practices. In a 20-page letter, the agency asked the company how it handled personal data and developed its AI models.

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(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied those claims.)