The Washington Post reports:

The Federal Trade Commission has opened a broad investigation into the safety of artificial intelligence systems made by Anthropic and OpenAI, a senior agency official said Wednesday.

The full extent of the probe was not clear, but the FTC has wide authority to investigate unfair and deceptive practices that hurt American consumers. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an investigation that has not been made public.

The investigation could provide backing for the Trump administration’s position that existing laws are sufficient to hold artificial intelligence companies accountable, as officials seek to resist a push by some in the industry and Congress to establish a new system of regulations for the technology. The probe was first reported by the New York Post.

Andrew Ferguson, the chair of the FTC, said last week that the government should not immediately jump to adopt new rules before examining the role of existing laws and should treat the AI industry’s calls for regulations with “deep suspicion.”

“There’s no easier way for incumbents to insulate themselves from competition than to enlist Washington to come alongside them and build a wall and a moat around their existing technologies,” he said at an event hosted by news agency Reuters. [Continue reading…]