FTC reportedly looking into whether OpenAI, Anthropic violated consumer protection laws

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Anthropic, OpenAI, and other AI labs harmed or misled consumers when their AI models went rogue, according to The New York Times, and is expected to send formal notices to the companies in the coming weeks. The probe also examines whether the firms engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices, and follows disclosures by OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google of incidents in which their AI gained access to third-party sites and services, including OpenAI agents accessing several Australian government websites. The news comes after AI industry leaders met with President Trump on Tuesday to sign a non-binding agreement to monitor their systems with third-party auditors.

The Federal Trade Commission is looking into the actions of leading AI labs Anthropic ANTH.PVT https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ANTH.PVT/ , OpenAI OPAI.PVT https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/OPAI.PVT/ , and other AI firms to determine if they've harmed or misled consumers. According to The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/technology/ftc-openai-anthropic-investigation.html , the investigation centers on whether the companies harmed consumers when their AI models went rogue, as well as whether they engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices. The commission is expected to send out formal notices to the AI labs in the coming weeks. The FTC was already looking into the companies prior to OpenAI's disclosure that its high-powered AI models hacked into AI company Hugging Face in July. Since then, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, META https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/META and Google GOOG https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOG/ , GOOGL https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOGL/ have each disclosed incidents of their AI gaining access to other sites and services. Last week, OpenAI revealed that its agents also accessed several Australian government websites. It also said the company's AI took unexpected steps when interacting with US government websites https://apnews.com/article/openai-government-website-incident-df331b55daffc6d202d8e2f6d0afa264 . News of the FTC's investigation comes after leaders from the AI industry met with President Trump https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/article/trump-gathers-with-ai-leaders-floats-self-regulation-as-the-way-to-deal-with-the-technologys-dangers-193745293.html on Tuesday to sign a non-binding agreement to monitor their systems and use third-party auditors to ensure they don't run wild. The heads of several companies joined the event, including Nvidia NVDA https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NVDA/ CEO Jensen Huang, SpaceX's SPCX https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SPCX/ Elon Musk, and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg. Experts say that while agents breaking into or gaining access to third-party systems is dangerous, standard security protocols could prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. But some AI critics https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/article/heres-where-the-biggest-tech-names-stand-on-slowing-ai-development-195849555.html are calling for more direct intervention, including government regulation, to keep AI systems under control and prevent future breaches. Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com . Follow him on X at @DanielHowley . Click here for the latest technology news that will impact the stock market Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance