The Federal Trade Commission is conducting an industry-wide probe into Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI labs over the potential dangers their AI agents pose to consumers, a senior FTC official told Reuters on October 1. The probe is the first official US enforcement action targeting rogue AI agents, following a surge of incidents first reported in July.

The FTC plans to issue formal demands for information and compel testimony from executives at top AI developers, including the research group METR, which the labs have used to investigate security incidents involving their agentic technology. The New York Post first reported the news. Anthropic, OpenAI and METR did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The official said FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson's concerns intensified after an incident in which OpenAI agents probed the open-source platform Hugging Face for vulnerabilities before carrying out a large-scale attack. Ferguson has suggested developers who instruct agents in cybersecurity tests that result in hacks should be liable for any harm caused — and that the US should look to existing laws before writing new ones.