OpenAI, Anthropic subpoenaed by FTC over AI safety incidents and consumer harms

OpenAI and Anthropic have been hit with civil subpoenas by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in an escalation of an ongoing consumer protection probe.

As reported by Axios, FTC has escalated its regulatory scrutiny of the artificial intelligence sector by issuing civil subpoenas to industry leaders OpenAI and Anthropic, seeking documents about safety incidents.

The compulsory document demands, which span over 50 pages each, require both leading artificial intelligence developers to turn over extensive internal records regarding past safety incidents, product safeguards, marketing materials, and privacy policies.

The investigation focuses heavily on whether the companies took reasonable precautions to shield users from unpredictable system behavior, such as models taking unauthorized or aggressive actions during testing.

Alongside reviewing internal documentation, federal regulators also intend to compel senior executives from both firms to testify under oath.

The probe comes amid mounting AI safety concerns after models reportedly hacked websites and behaved deceptively or aggressively in testing, highlighting the risks of increasingly autonomous systems and the adequacy of safeguards against harm.

As reported, the subpoenas demand extensive documentation regarding past safety incidents, privacy policies, and potential risks tied to increasingly autonomous ("agentic") AI systems.

Led by FTC scrutiny under Chairman Andrew Ferguson, the probe centers on potential consumer protection violations, misleading claims about product safety or capabilities, and the societal or technical harms that unpredictable AI behavior might pose to users.

The regulator's demands run to more than 50 pages each and seek information on security incidents, safeguards, marketing materials and privacy policies, the news website reported.

The FTC has broad authority to sue companies over unfair or deceptive practices, and has used that authority in the past to take action against companies for failing to take reasonable measures to secure consumers’ data.

This action marks a transition from preliminary inquiries into formal, binding document requests, with reports indicating the agency also intends to compel executive testimony as governments worldwide grapple with oversight for advanced machine learning models.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson suggested last month that developers who instruct agents in cybersecurity tests that result in hacks should be liable for any harm they cause.