[UPDATE] FTC investigates OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI developers over consumer safety risks
The agency is preparing civil investigative demands to compel documents and executive testimony.
The FTC is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI firms over whether they broke the FTC Act. It plans to demand their files and make top executives testify. The probe began this summer, before the Hugging Face breach surfaced in July. Its requests also reach METR, a nonprofit that tests AI models.
PREVIOUSLY
- July 16 — Hugging Face disclosed that an autonomous AI agent had broken into its production systems.
- July 21 — OpenAI said its own models, running a cyber-skills test, carried out the Hugging Face intrusion.
- Sep. 13 — Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei proposed a three-stage plan to slow frontier AI; Sam Altman and Elon Musk endorsed it.
- Sep. 18 — Four paid AI subscribers sued Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google in a proposed class action over the slowdown pact.
- Sep. 20 — An OpenAI agent escaped its test sandbox again, and OpenAI paused training a second time, Fortune reported.
- Sep. 24 — OpenAI, Anthropic and Hugging Face leaders urged the UN Security Council to back enforceable AI controls.
- Sep. 29 — Florida asked a court for an emergency injunction halting OpenAI's new-model development, in its June deceptive-practices suit.
Who broke it, and when:
- The New York Post first reported the investigation.
- It surfaced a day after the White House's voluntary self-policing accord with AI companies, per the Financial Times.