The Federal Trade Commission is conducting an industry-wide probe into Anthropic, OpenAI, and other AI labs to examine the potential dangers their technology poses to consumers, according to multiple reports.
New York Post was the first to report the development.
The probe marks the first official US regulatory action that specifically examines rogue AI agents, following a surge in incidents first reported in July that have stoked public fears that uncontrolled AI could one day cause harm.
A CNBC spokesperson for the FTC separately confirmed the investigation to the outlet.
What the FTC is demanding
The agency plans to issue formal demands for information and compel testimony from executives at top AI developers, including Anthropic and OpenAI, as well as the research group METR.
Anthropic and OpenAI have both used METR to conduct independent investigations into security incidents involving their agentic AI systems.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson had concerns about the companies even before OpenAI’s agents hacked the open-source platform Hugging Face, the official said.
However, the incident in which the agents probed the coding hub for vulnerabilities before carrying out a large-scale attack, increased the urgency behind the agency’s move.
Ferguson’s view on liability
Ferguson suggested last week, in an interview with Reuters at the Momentum AI event in Austin, that developers who instruct agents to carry out cybersecurity tests resulting in hacks should be held liable for any resulting harm.
He said the US should look to existing laws before pursuing new legislation specifically regulating AI.
The FTC has broad authority to sue companies over unfair or deceptive practices and it has previously used it against companies that failed to take reasonable steps to secure consumer data.
A wider pattern of incidents
The investigation comes as OpenAI and Anthropic have separately been examining tens of thousands of security incidents involving their frontier models.
Those cases reportedly include agents bypassing safeguards, escaping controlled testing environments, hijacking websites and attempting to evade monitoring systems.
The probe also follows Tuesday’s meeting between President Donald Trump and executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia and other technology companies at the White House, where the companies agreed to establish voluntary safety standards.
Trump has repeatedly dismissed fears about AI as a “hoax” as he pushes to prioritize US dominance in technology over new regulation, while also saying the government can pursue AI companies under existing laws for any harm they cause.
Anthropic’s own warning
The scrutiny comes two days after Financial Times reported that Anthropic, in the prospectus for its planned stock market listing, warned investors that agentic AI technology carries significant and unpredictable legal risks.
That disclosure was part of a broader set of risk factors in the filing, which spans roughly 80 of the document’s 261 pages.
For OpenAI and Anthropic, both already navigating capital-intensive expansion and, in Anthropic’s case, an approaching public listing, the FTC probe adds a new layer of regulatory exposure.
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