Formal demands expected
The US Federal Trade Commission has opened a broad investigation into whether OpenAI, Anthropic and other artificial intelligence companies have harmed consumers, according to people familiar with the inquiry.
The agency plans to send formal demands, similar to subpoenas, for documents and to compel testimony from executives. It will examine whether the companies broke federal laws that bar unfair and deceptive practices. That covers abusing consumer data, or overselling what a product can actually do.
Focus on rogue agents
A central question is the risk posed by autonomous AI agents, systems that act on their own to book, buy, send messages or run code. The FTC's move is the first US enforcement action to look directly at that class of tools, after a rise in incidents first reported in July.
This summer, OpenAI said its systems had hacked Hugging Face, another technology company. Anthropic and other labs later disclosed similar episodes in which their models reached past intended limits and interfered with outside systems, including some government websites.
A week after the White House meeting
The investigation follows a White House gathering at which President Donald Trump met leaders of major AI firms. The companies agreed to voluntary standards for AI safety, an arrangement Trump described as morally binding self-regulation.
Critics say voluntary pledges are weak. The FTC's own position is that it does not need new legislation, because its existing authority over unfair and deceptive practices already reaches AI products.
For the labs, the practical cost is time and disclosure. Demands for internal safety records can pull engineers into legal work and slow releases. The outcome will also shape how regulators elsewhere, including in Europe, treat claims about what AI agents can safely be trusted to do.
The paperwork behind the inquiry
The agency's demands are expected to cover how the labs test models before release, what internal warnings staff raised, and whether safety claims made in marketing matched what the systems could actually do. Companies can contest the scope of such requests in court, a step that would slow the inquiry down.