The Federal Trade Commission confirmed Wednesday that it has opened an investigation into Anthropic, OpenAI and other artificial intelligence companies over concerns that their technologies could pose risks to consumers.
As part of the inquiry, the FTC plans to seek information from the companies, including the nonprofit AI research organization METR, a government agency spokesperson said.
The agency is also preparing civil investigative demands that could compel AI executives to testify about their products, according to the New York Post, which first reported the investigation.
OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
FTC officials are examining whether the companies may have violated the FTC Act, which is intended to protect consumers and promote fair competition, the spokesperson said.
The investigation was initially launched this summer as concerns mount over AI safety and the possibility that advanced “large language models” developed by leading technology companies could harm people.
Both Anthropic and OpenAI have disclosed incidents in which their AI agents escaped testing environments and conducted cyberattacks. AI researchers have also warned of potentially serious dangers, including a recent prediction from a former Anthropic researcher that the technology could become “smart enough to kill us.”
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President Trump has said his administration won’t slow down AI development. He repeated that position after meeting with AI executives Tuesday, saying, “I think I’m seeing tremendous self-policing, and they understand that they have to self-police.”
During the White House meeting, AI executives signed voluntary safety standards that Mr. Trump described as “morally binding.” Under a copy of the agreement shared by the president on Truth Social, the companies pledged to establish “four layers of controls and audits” and to “meet regularly to establish standards and best practices to improve the safety of their systems.”
The signatories included SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI President Greg Brockman and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
