US FTC Launches Investigation into OpenAI and Anthropic

The US Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation into OpenAI, Anthropic, and other artificial intelligence companies. The regulator wants to determine what risks autonomously operating AI agents may pose to consumers.

The FTC will require the companies to formally submit information. The agency also plans to question the leadership of OpenAI and Anthropic. The investigation includes the research organization METR, which was working with both companies to study safety incidents.

This is the first official step taken by US authorities that directly addresses actions carried out by AI agents. Such programs perform certain tasks on a computer without constant human guidance.

The investigation was reportedly spurred by an incident in which OpenAI's agents carried out a large-scale attack on Hugging Face's system.

OpenAI, Anthropic, and METR have not yet commented on the investigation.

Source: Reuters