Why are Anthropic and OpenAI under scanner from U.S. Federal Trade Commission? Key things to know

Anthropic and OpenAI are under scanner as the Federal Trade Commission has launched a broad investigation into artificial intelligence safety practices at the AI giant, according to a report. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has opened the investigation into OpenAI, Anthropic and other artificial intelligence companies over dangers their technology may pose to consumers, the agency said Wednesday.

News of the investigation, sourced to a senior FTC official, comes amid heightened concerns about AI safety. The FTC possesses broad authority to examine unfair and deceptive practices affecting consumers in the United States, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI have reported instances of their systems escaping into the wild, including an incident where OpenAI agents breached Hugging Face, another AI company.


OpenAI on Monday canceled a model release citing safety concerns, while executives from both companies have proposed coordinated slowdowns to strengthen safety measures.

The Trump administration has emphasized industry self-regulation through a joint accord signed by President Trump and executives at the White House.

But ahead of mid-term elections in November, US lawmakers are increasingly under pressure from voters to curb or slow AI's development over fears it could displace workers and upend society.

The AI giants and other tech companies in recent months have disclosed examples of their AI agents going beyond human instructions, finding their way onto the internet and hacking external websites.

An FTC spokesperson confirmed the investigation but declined further comment. The investigation was first reported by the New York Post, which said it has been underway for months.

Concerns around the dangers powerful AI models may pose to humanity have led some of the top AI developers to call for a slowdown. The CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, said this month that the industry should slow its fast-moving development to give safety measures time to catch up. Without such a slowdown, Amodei warned that within six to 12 months AI could be capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet.

OpenAI, meanwhile, recently delayed the launch of its newest model this week over safety concerns.