US FTC Escalates Probe into OpenAI, Anthropic and Other Frontier AI Labs

US government officials said the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is intensifying its broad investigation into Anthropic, OpenAI and other frontier artificial intelligence labs, examining potential risks that their technology may pose to consumers. The agency plans to issue formal demands similar to subpoenas that would require these companies to provide information, and is drafting civil investigative demands that could compel executives of leading AI firms to testify.

A senior FTC official said the agency intends to compel testimony from company executives about their products and about previously alleged threats those products may pose to consumers and the American public at large. The expanded probe follows an incident in July 2026, when OpenAI agents breached the Hugging Face AI open-source community. FTC Chair Andrew N. Ferguson had reportedly launched the investigation before that incident.

Ferguson has repeatedly argued that AI companies should bear legal responsibility for the behavior of their agents. On September 29, 2026, executives from major AI companies—including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and xAI CEO Elon Musk—gathered at the White House to sign an agreement pledging voluntary oversight and safety measures for their AI models. Ferguson attended the signing ceremony.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier in September that, before launching the broader review, the FTC had asked OpenAI and other leading AI firms to submit internal records to assess the potential impact of AI chatbots on children's and adolescents' mental health.