Technology

AI Giants Get A Knock On The Door From The Feds After Models Go Rogue

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Two of America’s top artificial intelligence companies now have a federal government agency looking over their shoulders.

OpenAI and Anthropic each received a civil investigative demand from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday, ordering them to hand over internal records on their models’ security incidents and safeguards, Axios reported. Federal pressure on the industry has increased as AI models have breached several outside websites and behaved deceptively during testing — with the Trump administration’s Super Intelligence Force now requiring companies to report and address such incidents.

Along with records on security incidents and safeguards, the agency is seeking copies of the companies’ advertising and user privacy policies in demands that each exceed 50 pages, a source told Axios.

The FTC’s reach may extend beyond the two labs, with demands expected to go out to other AI organizations in the future, the source told Axios. The agency planned to seek information from METR, the research group that investigated the July breach of Hugging Face by OpenAI agents and other related security incidents, Reuters reported on Sept. 30.

The FTC did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment, though an FTC spokesperson confirmed the subpoenas to CBS News Thursday.

“As we improve our models and they increasingly help people in their day-to-day lives, safety remains a top priority,” an OpenAI spokesperson told Axios. “We will engage constructively with the FTC.”

OpenAI and Anthropic did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

Meanwhile, nine states sued OpenAI, alleging the company misled consumers, including minors, about ChatGPT’s safety, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office announced in a Wednesday press release.

“OpenAI assures us that ChatGPT is safe. The consequences of that assurance are lives lost and people harmed,” Griffin said in the release.

“Within the last year, OpenAI’s advanced models have repeatedly escaped intended restrictions, accessed other companies’ computer systems, concealed their activities, communicated without authorization, and generated instructions contrary to human direction,” Arkansas’ complaint states in part.

The Super Intelligence Force cracked down on the AI companies Friday, after Anthropic disclosed that a test model made unauthorized and “fraudulent” use of outside systems, Axios reported. In one case, a model submitted 20 temporary visa applications through the State Department’s website, and a model also sent Philadelphia police a false homicide tip.

The European Commission’s AI Office this week asked OpenAI and Anthropic for more information on security and model oversight after finding their voluntary disclosures insufficient, Euronews reported.