The US Federal Trade Commission has sent civil subpoenas to AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI, seeking documents about safety incidents, Axios reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
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.
Last month, Reuters reported that the FTC planned an industry-wide investigation into AI companies. The FTC also plans to compel executives at top AI developers, including Anthropic, OpenAI and the research group METR, to testify.
An OpenAI spokesperson said the company "will engage constructively with the FTC and continue working with regulators and policymakers on policies that raise the safety bar." The FTC and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Axios report.
The regulator's demands run to more than 50 pages each and seek information on security incidents, safeguards, marketing materials and privacy policies, Axios reported. Reuters noted it could not immediately verify the Axios report.
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.