The Federal Trade Commission is scrutinizing OpenAI, Anthropic PBC and other artificial intelligence companies about the safety of their products amid high-profile cybersecurity incidents, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The agency is preparing to send formal demands for information to the companies as part of a probe into whether firms are abiding by consumer protection laws, said the person, who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record about a confidential investigation. The demands are likely to be sent in the coming weeks, the person said.
OpenAI had no immediate comment and Anthropic didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The biggest AI developers have disclosed a number of incidents where their models have breached third-party systems, fueling anxiety from Washington to Silicon Valley that the technology poses an increasing risk. Companies have been under pressure to police their systems.
In July, one of OpenAI’s agentic AI systems hacked into Hugging Face. Meanwhile, over the past several weeks, the company has been notifying governments and universities that their websites were accessed by its models during training.
The FTC, which enforces both antitrust and consumer protection demands, has a long history of focusing on cybersecurity and data breaches, bringing cases over computer system security that have resulted in companies paying billions of dollars. Probes can also end with no action being taken.
The FTC has made other moves to scrutinize artificial intelligence companies. Last year, it also sought information from Alphabet Inc.’s Google, OpenAI, Meta Platforms Inc. and other makers of artificial intelligence chatbots about the impacts of their technologies on kids.
The New York Post earlier reported on the cybersecurity probe.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump and Silicon Valley leaders signed a non-binding accord endorsing the use of outside auditors to assess the safety of AI systems as an alternative to putting new government regulations in place. The document carries no legal weight. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson attended the White House meeting along with executives from OpenAI, Anthropic and other leading companies including Meta Platforms Inc. and Nvidia Corp.
Photo: Signage outside the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) headquarters in Washington, DC. Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg
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