FTC 向 OpenAI 和 Anthropic 发出民事调查令，核查安全事件是否损害消费者

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Not beyond human control

Report: FTC probes Anthropic, OpenAI after Trump dismissed AI fears as “hoax”

FTC may fine AI firms on par with companies that delay data breach reports.

Ashley Belanger – Oct 15, 2026 3:43 PM|0

FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson has said AI firms are liable for losing control of AI agents. Credit: Tom Williams / Contributor | CQ-Roll Call, Inc.

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Following a string of incidents where AI models hacked websites and breached government systems during testing phases, the Federal Trade Commission is officially probing Anthropic and OpenAI over consumer harms, an insider told Axios.

On Wednesday, the FTC sent out civil investigative demands seeking a wide range of information from the AI firms on recent safety incidents.

The FTC did not respond to Ars’ request to review the subpoena demands. However, Axios’ source said the requests spanned more than 50 pages of questions and sought documents related to the incidents, internal security measures taken, and marketing materials that may suggest consumers were misled.

Soon, third parties targeted by OpenAI and Anthropic agents will also be subpoenaed, Axios’ source said. Any concerning evidence gathered may support FTC litigation, should the FTC decide to sue either or both firms for releasing unsafe products.

OpenAI already faces lawsuits alleging consumer harms, including lawsuits linking its chatbot to matricide, child suicide, school shootings, and other violence. And this week, a group of eight states specifically sued OpenAI over consumer harms, Reuters reported. Like consumers suing, they argued that ChatGPT harms children and “reinforces delusions, encourages dangerous behavior, and assists users in planning violence like mass shootings.”

FTC rejects claims AI agents act independently

OpenAI and Anthropic did not respond to Ars’ request to comment on the subpoenas, but the FTC’s expansive info requests were likely expected.

In September, Reuters reported that the probe was coming, noting that an independent research group investigating the incidents, METR, would likely also be subpoenaed.

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That same month, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson told Reuters that he thinks that companies should be liable for chatbot harms. At that time, Ferguson emphasized that he was tired of people anthropomorphizing AI tools. He insisted that, “if someone tells a tool to do something, and the tool does it, I don’t think we would say, ‘Oh, what do we do about the tool?’”

Summarizing his remarks, Reuters reported that Ferguson emphasized that evidence so far shows that AI tools do not act without instructions:

“Artificial intelligence companies have sometimes described systems as acting beyond human control, but subsequent reviews of audit trails have shown that the systems were carrying out instructions they had ⁠been given.”

Trump doesn’t “seem to care”

Ferguson is a chair of Trump’s “Super Intelligence” (SI) Force charged with monitoring AI risks. Notably one of the first orders that task force issued required all AI companies across the industry to report security incidents as soon as they are aware of them, Axios reported last week.

That’s notable, since both Anthropic and OpenAI delayed notification during security incidents, sometimes waiting until they were ready to report they had resolved issues.

However, it’s not clear what consequences any AI firm might face if they fail to immediately report incidents. And Ferguson aligns with Trump that no new regulations are needed to protect the general public from emerging self-improving AI models that one departing Anthropic researcher warned could in the next few years “kill us all.”

Trump has dismissed such extreme claims as a “hoax,” while TIME reported in an interview with the president and people close to him this month that Trump is enthralled by AI’s capabilities. Similarly, other backlash, like protests over AI data centers, are “based on fake stuff,” Trump claimed to TIME. He insists that AI backlash is driven by foreign rivals and Trump haters, despite studies and surveys repeatedly finding that backlash legitimately stems from real-world grievances. Most recently this month, a Wall Street Journal analysis of 4 million TikTok videos and political podcasts reiterated that, broadly, public concerns are not rooted in misinformation.

Yet, one aide told TIME that Trump “really just didn’t seem to care” about the public’s AI fears since “he’s used to generating outrage and then watching everyone eventually crawl back to him. It’s hard to convince him to do anything at this point.”

Even when TIME asked Trump about AI agents manipulating government systems—like an Anthropic agent submitting 19 nonimmigrant visa applications or OpenAI agents interacting with multiple government websites in unexpected ways—he appeared perhaps pointedly unaware of them.

“Who breached it?” Trump asked. “They’re not allowed to do that.”

It seems that Trump expects the SI Force to handle security, while the president remains a megaphone for AI industry interests. At the current juncture, the SI Force seems toothless, though, unless Ferguson is right that existing consumer protection laws cover this new kind of harm.

Ferguson told Reuters that the “US should utilize existing legal tools” to regulate AI firms, noting that the FTC has broad “authority to take action against companies that fail to disclose data breaches,” and that standard “could also apply to AI developers.”

That approach could possibly threaten steep per-violation fines for each day AI firms fail to warn the public of an emerging harm. Whether the FTC would pursue heavy fines under the current administration, however, seems dubious. Trump continues to argue that America’s top priority is investing in AI innovation, not probing US frontier labs working out the kinks at breakneck speeds.

Ashley BelangerSenior Policy Reporter

Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience.

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