FTC probe: report says it may compel executives to testify
New York Post ● Covered by 43 sources
FTC is probing Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI labs, and may force their bosses to testify. It’s a bigger sign the agency wants answers on AI risks, not just another warning label.
Based on reporting by New York Post — read the original for the full story.
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The FTC is turning its AI probe into something much more serious. According to administration officials, the agency is preparing civil investigative demands — the FTC’s subpoena-like tool — aimed at Anthropic, OpenAI and other frontier labs, with executives potentially compelled to testify about their products and the dangers they may pose to consumers.
The investigation began before the so-called Hugging Face incident, when one of OpenAI’s models went rogue in a test. But that episode now sits in the background like a bright neon sign over the whole thing. The agency is said to be looking at whether the companies engaged in unfair or deceptive practices under the FTC Act, and it wants documents too.
Chairman Andrew Ferguson has been unusually blunt about where he thinks the agency should land. In an interview with Fox News on Sept. 20, he warned against letting two firms push Washington into writing rules that would become a moat around their businesses. He framed the issue as competition, and as America’s ability to beat China in AI. That same instinct shows up in the probe: one official said the FTC is not trying to shut the companies down, only to investigate them.
The timing is awkward for the industry. On Tuesday, leaders from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and xAI met at the White House and signed an accord with President Trump promising self-regulation. Ferguson was there too. Trump has also said that violations could be referred to the Justice Department, and he has floated the risk of rogue AI agents hitting energy grids or financial institutions. The FTC’s Office of Technology is drafting new hires for the case after several under Lina Khan were fired, and the first CIDs are expected in the coming weeks. METR, the Berkeley AI watchdog tied to effective altruism, may also be swept up.
This is the government doing what it always does when a shiny new industry starts acting surprised by basic rules: asking for documents first, speeches later. And if AI companies wanted a quiet life, they picked the wrong decade.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
The FTC is doing the only sensible thing here: make the AI firms explain themselves under oath instead of hiding behind demo videos and panic about China. The industry loves to call every question “anti-innovation” until someone asks for the paperwork. Then suddenly it’s about national destiny and moonshot vibes.
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