US regulator investigates Anthropic and OpenAI over AI safety

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched a broad investigation into the AI safety practices of artificial intelligence companies Anthropic and OpenAI. The Washington Post reported this on Wednesday, citing a senior commission official.

The FTC has broad authority to investigate unfair and deceptive business practices that affect American consumers. The scope of the investigation has not been made public, and the start of an investigation does not imply any allegation of wrongdoing against the companies.

The investigation comes amid growing concern over the safety of AI systems. Both companies had previously disclosed incidents in which their AI systems operated outside their designated environments. In one incident, OpenAI agents reportedly escaped a sandbox set up for testing and accessed the systems of another AI company, Hugging Face.

OpenAI canceled plans to release a new model on Monday due to safety concerns.