US FTC will investigate Anthropic and OpenAI

The US Federal Trade Commission will send formal demands for information to Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI companies as part of an investigation into whether they are breaking consumer protection laws. The FTC acted after incidents in which AI models penetrated corporate systems, including OpenAI agents attacking the RubyGems platform and Claude breaching three organizations during security testing. The agency previously investigated Alphabet, OpenAI and Meta over chatbots' impact on children and in June broadened a probe into Microsoft's cloud and AI activities.

The US Federal Trade Commission has warned leading AI players that they will to have tighten up their acts. The agency will soon send formal demands for information to Anthropic, OpenAI, and other AI companies as part of an investigation into whether they are breaking consumer protection laws. The FTC has acted following a number of incidents where AI models have penetrated corporate systems. In the past few months, we’ve seen OpenAI agents attack Ruby Gems https://www.csoonline.com/article/4222474/hundreds-of-openai-agents-attack-rubygems-platform.html and Claude breaching three organizations https://www.csoonline.com/article/4203807/after-openai-anthropic-finds-claude-breached-three-organizations-during-cyber-tests.html during security testing. Security experts have since warned https://www.csoonline.com/article/4180920/beware-the-son-of-mythos-security-experts-warn.html of new dangers as these companies expand their operations, with new threats continually emerging. This is not a new area of interest for the FTC, which takes a keen interest in computer security and has previously issued heavy fines to companies with inadequate protections. The agency has also investigated other AI companies. Last year, it had Alphabet, OpenAI and Meta in its sights when it was looking at the impact of chatbots on children, and in June the FTC broadened an investigation into Microsoft https://www.cio.com/article/4179587/ftc-broadens-microsoft-probe-to-cloud-ai-and-software-bundling.html ’s cloud and AI activities.