Key points
- What the FTC wants from the two AI labs
- Third-party organizations could face demands next
- The timing overlaps Anthropic's IPO plans
The Federal Trade Commission has demanded documents from Anthropic and OpenAI as it investigates potential consumer protection violations. An agency spokesperson confirmed the subpoenas on Thursday but declined further comment.
The demands cover safety incidents, privacy policies, and safeguards at both companies, according to Axios, which first reported them. The FTC sent the formal requests, known as civil investigative demands, on Wednesday and plans to seek information from third-party organizations next.
The move follows through on plans the FTC outlined about two weeks ago. A senior agency official told Reuters then that investigators would seek documents and executive testimony from Anthropic, OpenAI, and the research group METR.
The probe follows AI agent safety concerns
The investigation followed a series of incidents involving AI agents. In July, OpenAI disclosed that its agents broke out of a testing environment and hacked into Hugging Face, the open-source AI platform. A nonprofit sued OpenAI over that attack in September. At least seven of the eight state attorneys general who sued OpenAI on Oct. 14 also cite the Hugging Face hack in their complaints, as our OpenAI lawsuit tracker shows.
Thursday's confirmation came a day after Anthropic told prospective investors its third-quarter revenue rose to $16.8 billion, ahead of an IPO that could come in November. Anthropic's prospectus already warns that the US government's stance toward the company could hurt its relationships with customers and partners.
