FTC subpoenas Anthropic, OpenAI over safety crisis — SkimNews
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- The FTC sent civil subpoenas on Wednesday demanding documents from AI companies about safety incidents described as an "industry crisis."
- Anthropic and OpenAI are the specifically named recipients of the FTC's document demands.
- The FTC probe focuses on potential consumer protection violations tied to those safety incidents.
- The safety incidents have "spiraled" into an industry-wide crisis, per the source, framing the FTC's interest as systemic rather than company-specific.
- The subpoenas had not been publicly disclosed before this report, which carries a "Scoop" designation.
Why it matters: With Anthropic and OpenAI both under FTC civil subpoena, the agency is treating AI safety incidents as a systemic consumer protection problem, not isolated engineering bugs. Subpoenas force document production under threat of court enforcement — a meaningful escalation beyond voluntary industry self-policing.
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