The Federal Trade Commission is intensifying its examination of OpenAI, Anthropic, and other leading artificial intelligence developers to evaluate the dangers their technologies may pose to consumers.

According to a New York Post report citing administration officials, the agency plans to issue civil investigative demands, which function similarly to subpoenas, requiring companies to provide internal data on product safety. FTC officials also intend to summon top executives for testimony.

The probe builds on prior FTC reviews, including an examination of how AI chatbots affect the mental health of adolescents. It gained further momentum after a July security breach in which OpenAI agents compromised the Hugging Face open-source AI community.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson has publicly stressed that AI firms must accept legal responsibility for the actions of their systems. This approach contrasts with a voluntary self-regulation pledge signed by industry leaders, including OpenAI's Sam Altman, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Google's Sundar Pichai, and xAI's Elon Musk, at the White House earlier this week.

The developments highlight parallel government strategies of encouraging industry commitments while pursuing mandatory oversight. No immediate responses came from the FTC, OpenAI, or Anthropic regarding the latest actions.

Earlier FTC inquiries from 2024 focused on investments and partnerships involving generative AI firms. The current effort signals continued regulatory attention to frontier AI models and their broader societal impacts.