FTC demands Anthropic leaders testify in consumer harm investigation

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has asked executives from the AI firm Anthropic to testify as part of its consumer harm probe into the maker of the Claude AI model, a FTC spokesperson confirmed to The Hill on Monday.

The demand is part of the consumer protection agency’s larger investigation into Anthropic over the potential risks their AI models pose to consumers. The agency is also investigating OpenAI, though it did not confirm the same demands were sent to the ChatGPT producer.

The demands, first reported by Axios , come nearly two weeks after the FTC sent subpoenas to OpenAI and Anthropic.

Both companies in recent months have revealed multiple incidents of AI agents accessing other information and data systems without human instruction to do so.

Earlier this month, Anthropic disclosed one of its models submitted a false homicide tip to the Philadelphia Police Department in July. The New York Times also reported this month that Anthropic’s AI agents tried to fill out visa forms on the State Department’s website .

In the wake of recent hacking incidents, leaders from OpenAI and Anthropic have both called for a slowdown of the technology and supported establishing an industry standard on safe technology development.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has tried to set himself apart as an advocate for safer AI development, a position that has caused rifts with the Trump administration in the past.

Earlier Monday, Anthropic filed for its initial public offering to make its historic stock market debut.

The S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission brought the AI firm a step closer to becoming the first large frontier AI lab to go public.

In Monday’s filing, Anthropic highlighted various risks of the technology, including the potential for cyberattacks, design of biological weapons or mass surveillance by government.