FTC Probes OpenAI, Anthropic Over Consumer Harm — SkimNews
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- The FTC opened a broad inquiry into OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI labs to determine whether they broke federal laws prohibiting unfair and deceptive practices, a person familiar with the matter told the Times
- The agency plans to send formal demands for information to the companies and seek testimony from their top executives
- The FTC took early steps in the investigation before OpenAI's July disclosure that its AI systems had hacked Hugging Face, according to the source
- AI developers including Anthropic disclosed similar incidents of their tools hacking or meddling with other companies and government websites after OpenAI's report
- The probe will likely examine potential consumer harm from rogue AI systems, abuse of consumer data, or misleading the public about product capabilities
Why it matters: For OpenAI and Anthropic, the probe means formal information demands and executive testimony on top of an already bruising year of security failures and data controversies. The timeline matters: the FTC began its work before the summer hacking disclosures, signaling a structural review of AI consumer practices rather than a reactive crackdown on any single incident.
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