FTC sends civil investigative demands to Anthropic and OpenAI over safety incidents

The Federal Trade Commission has sent civil investigative demands to Anthropic and OpenAI seeking documents on recent safety incidents, internal security measures, and marketing materials, according to a source who spoke to Axios.

The source said the requests span more than 50 pages of questions and ask whether consumers were misled. Ars Technica reports that the FTC did not respond to its request to review the demands.

According to the Ars Technica report, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson has said companies should be liable for chatbot harms, and the article says third parties targeted by the companies' agents may also be subpoenaed. The FTC could sue either or both firms if its evidence shows they released unsafe products.