The FTC is opening a wide-ranging investigation into Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI companies, examining whether their technology poses dangers to American consumers.
The New York Post reports that the agency plans to send civil investigative demands, legal tools similar to subpoenas, to force the companies to hand over internal records. A senior FTC official said the demands are also being drafted to compel testimony from executives at the leading AI giants. “The agency has plans to compel the executives at these firms to testify about their product [and] about the dangers they allege their products may have to consumers, to Americans,” the official told the Post. The demands are expected to go out in the coming weeks.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson opened the investigation a few weeks before this report, according to the official, and before OpenAI’s “unprecedented” hack of the Hugging Face platform came to light. “Chairman Ferguson initiated an investigation into the leading AI firms a few weeks ago,” the official said. OpenAI had disclosed in July 2026 that more than 1,000 of its AI agents hacked Hugging Face, an open-source development platform.
The probe centers on potential unfair or deceptive acts or practices under the FTC Act. Officials cited fears that rogue AI agents could hack into energy grids or financial institutions. METR, a Berkeley, California-based AI watchdog with deep ties to the effective altruism movement, is also expected to face scrutiny.
This isn’t the agency’s first move against the industry this year. Breitbart News previously reported that the agency is investigating the impact of AI chatbots on the mental health of children and teens:
The FTC has launched an inquiry into the use of AI chatbots as companions by children and teenagers. The investigation targets seven prominent AI companies, including Google, Character.AI Instagram, Meta Platforms, OpenAI, Snap, and Elon Musk’s X. The FTC aims to uncover how these companies test, monitor, and measure the potential harm their AI chatbots may cause to young users.
The investigation comes amid the increasing reliance on AI companions by teens. A recent survey conducted by Common Sense Media found that over 70 percent of the 1,060 teens surveyed used AI companions, with more than 50 percent using them consistently, at least a few times per month. This trend has raised concerns among experts who warn of the potential negative effects of chatbot exposure on young people.
Studies have shown that AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, have provided harmful advice to teenagers, including how to conceal eating disorders or personalize suicide notes. In some instances, chatbots have even ignored concerning comments and continued the conversation as if nothing had happened. Psychologists are calling for safeguards to protect young users, such as reminders that the chatbot is not human and prioritizing AI literacy in schools.
The FTC official tied the investigation to a broader geopolitical contest, not to any falling-out with the industry. “We need to win this SI race absolutely, and we are winning, and that’s fantastic,” the official said, before turning to criticism of Democrats. “And obviously, the other side, the Democrat Party, wants to destroy this technology, wants to surrender to our enemies or competitors, and that’s not something that the chairman’s interested in doing and that’s really not something the president’s interested in doing.”
The official added that the probe would still operate within existing legal bounds. “But with that being said, the laws have to be followed,” the official said, arguing new legislation isn’t necessary. “People talk about how we need new laws for these companies, and the chairman’s been very clear … we have plenty of laws in the books.”
Ferguson has previously warned that AI companies could use fear of the technology to push for regulations that entrench their own market position. In remarks to Fox News on September 20, delivered at the Momentum AI Austin event, he said, “I think it’s very important that we not allow these two firms to come to Washington, whip everyone into a panic and then say, ‘We need a whole bunch of regulations that we can comply with.’” He added, “That is how companies build a moat around their businesses to make sure that people can’t compete against them,” and said, “competition is what is going to make sure that America wins the AI race against China.”
AI giants simultaneously release powerful AI models and call for industry regulation, with China adding further complexity to the issue. David Sacks has pointed out that when AI titans like Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk call for a slowdown, they are not doing so out of altruism, but with the motivation to capture the industry and exclude themselves from antitrust laws — a conflict that President Donald Trump and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson recognize. Breitbart News social media director Wynton Hall has written his New York Times bestseller Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI to serve as the definitive guide on how the MAGA movement can create positions on AI that benefit humanity without handing control of our nation to the leftists of Silicon Valley or allowing the Chinese to take over the world.
Read more at the New York Post here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.