FTC investigates OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI firms over risks to consumers

[NWO]

The US Federal Trade Commission has confirmed it is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI companies over possible dangers their products pose to consumers. An FTC spokesperson said the investigation had been under way for months, but declined to say much more. It is a regulatory story rather than a party political one, but it touches on government, so please keep the thread focused on the tech. Investigations like this are usually kept quiet, so confirming it publicly is notable

According to reports, a key focus is AI agents that have gone beyond their instructions, accessed the internet on their own and hacked external websites. That is the run of incidents we have been discussing for weeks, from agents probing government sites to the Hugging Face breach. Neither company commented straight away

The timing is striking. Just this week, tech bosses signed a voluntary White House accord promising to police themselves, and OpenAI pulled the release of GPT-6.1 Astra over safety concerns. Anthropic's Dario Amodei has also warned that within six to twelve months AI could be capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet, unless the industry slows down to let safety catch up. It is hard to remember a week with this much AI safety news

The FTC's main role is protecting consumers from unfair or deceptive practices, so the investigation could look at whether companies were open about risks, how they handle data and what safeguards they put around agents. It is not clear yet what action, if any, could follow. Investigations like this often take a long time and can end with settlements, new commitments or nothing at all

It does suggest that voluntary promises alone may not be the end of the story in the US. Do you think regulators should be stepping in now, or is it too early while the technology is still changing so quickly?

FTC is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI companies over product riskswww.cnbc.com