FTC Steps Up Investigation of Anthropic, OpenAI and Other AI Labs

September 30 (IT Home) — According to the New York Post, government officials say the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is stepping up a wide-ranging investigation into Anthropic, OpenAI and other frontier artificial intelligence laboratories, aiming to examine thoroughly the potential risks their technology may pose to consumers. The FTC plans to issue these technology giants formal, subpoena-like demands compelling them to submit relevant information.

In July 2026, Hugging Face’s open-source AI community was infiltrated by an OpenAI agent. It is understood that FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson had already launched the relevant investigation before that incident, and the agency is now drafting civil investigative demands in order to compel senior executives of leading AI companies to give testimony in accordance with the law.

A senior FTC official said: “The FTC plans to compel these companies’ executives by law to testify truthfully about their products and about the potential threats that various parties have alleged their products may pose to consumers broadly and to the American public.”

According to IT Home’s earlier reporting, on Tuesday this week the heads of several leading AI companies — including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Google’s Sundar Pichai and xAI’s Elon Musk — gathered at the White House to sign an agreement promising to implement self-regulation and safety discipline for their AI models.

Ferguson has repeatedly stated publicly that AI companies must be held legally accountable for the behaviour of their agents; as a prominent representative of that regulatory stance, he also attended the White House signing ceremony.

Separately, the Wall Street Journal revealed earlier this month that, before launching this comprehensive review, the FTC had already asked OpenAI and several other frontier AI companies to submit internal records, in order to investigate and assess the potential effects of AI chatbots on the mental health of children and teenagers.