The Federal Trade Commission has opened an industry-wide investigation into OpenAI, Anthropic and other artificial-intelligence laboratories, marking a significant escalation in U.S. scrutiny of autonomous AI agents.
A senior FTC official told Reuters that the agency plans to issue formal information demands and compel testimony from executives at major AI developers, including OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as AI research organization METR.
Reuters described the investigation as the first official U.S. enforcement action focused specifically on rogue AI agents.
The probe follows security incidents involving increasingly autonomous systems. According to Reuters, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson’s concerns intensified following an incident in which OpenAI agents testing the Hugging Face platform for vulnerabilities carried out a large-scale attack.
OpenAI and Anthropic have used METR for independent investigations into security incidents involving agentic AI. OpenAI, Anthropic and METR had not immediately responded to Reuters requests for comment when its report was published.
The FTC’s legal approach matters because the agency may not need Congress to enact a new AI-specific law before acting.
Ferguson has said existing law should be considered before creating new AI regulation. The FTC already has authority to bring cases involving unfair or deceptive practices and has previously acted against companies over inadequate protection of consumer data.
The investigation therefore moves the U.S. AI debate from voluntary safeguards toward potential enforcement under existing consumer-protection law.
That distinction is particularly important for companies developing agents capable of independently using software, browsing networks, writing code or taking actions on behalf of users.
Anthropic has separately warned investors that agentic AI could create significant and unpredictable legal risks as it prepares for a public listing.
For technology investors, the issue is no longer limited to model performance or computing costs. Liability, cybersecurity controls, testing procedures and regulatory exposure are becoming increasingly important components of the economics of deploying autonomous AI.
Markets should watch the scope of the FTC’s information demands, which executives are required to testify, whether the investigation produces enforcement actions, and whether other U.S. regulators adopt similar approaches.
