The Federal Trade Commission is intensifying an investigation into Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI labs over potential risks to consumers, Reuters reported on 30 September, drawing on a New York Post account. The reported investigation comes a day after executives from those companies signed a voluntary AI safety accord at the White House.
Key points
- The FTC is investigating potential consumer risks from Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI labs, according to reports citing administration officials.
- The agency is preparing civil investigative demands for documents and testimony in the coming weeks, Breaking the News reported.
- Executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and xAI signed a voluntary safety accord with President Donald Trump on 29 September.
- Reuters said it could not independently verify the report of the investigation.
FTC plans demands for testimony and documents
The FTC plans to seek information from the companies through formal demands similar to subpoenas, Reuters reported, citing the New York Post’s account of administration officials’ remarks. The agency is preparing civil investigative demands for testimony and documents in the coming weeks. Those demands would move the inquiry beyond an account of possible consumer dangers: the companies would face requests made through a formal investigative process.
A senior FTC official told the New York Post that the agency planned to require executives to testify about their products and the dangers those executives allege the products may pose to consumers, Breaking the News reported. The official’s description concerned the agency’s intended questions, rather than a finding that the products had harmed consumers. It also placed executives, as well as company records, within the scope of the demands the FTC is preparing.
The official characterised the action as an investigation. “We want to maintain our dominance,” the official said, according to Breaking the News. “Nothing in our investigation should remotely get in the way of that at all . . . We are in the investigative phase.” The remarks put the agency’s stated concern about consumer risks alongside its stated wish to avoid impeding US leadership in AI.
White House accord preceded the FTC report
At the White House on 29 September, President Donald Trump and executives of xAI, Google, Anthropic, OpenAI and other major AI companies signed a voluntary accord on AI safety. The reported FTC investigation emerged the next day. The accord was voluntary, while the demands the FTC is preparing are a formal means of obtaining documents and testimony from companies under investigation.
The two accounts concern many of the same companies but describe different kinds of action. At the White House, executives signed a safety accord. In the FTC inquiry, according to the reports, the agency intends to seek company information and question executives about alleged consumer dangers. The senior official said the FTC was in the investigative phase, and described its planned testimony as concerning both the firms’ products and risks the executives allege they may pose.
Reuters could not verify the investigation report
The account of the FTC’s plans rests on reporting attributed to administration officials. Reuters said it could not independently verify the New York Post report. The agency’s reported intention to issue demands therefore remains a reported plan, rather than a demand described as already served on Anthropic, OpenAI or another lab. The senior official’s description of the inquiry likewise sets out what the agency plans to ask executives, not the result of their testimony.
The FTC, Anthropic and OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
