US FTC probes OpenAI and Anthropic over AI-agent hacks and consumer risks - CHOSUNBIZ

U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) corporations OpenAI and Anthropic are set to face an investigation by U.S. regulators over security incidents, including unauthorized hacking by their AI agents that recently surfaced.

Axios and Reuters reported on Oct. 14 that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that day sent a civil investigative demand (CID) to OpenAI and Anthropic seeking materials related to the security incidents.

A civil investigative demand is an administrative procedure akin to a court subpoena, a document sent by authorities to obtain internal materials from corporations. In the 50-page demand, the FTC reportedly focused on potential consumer protection violations and requested materials on the recent security incidents and related safeguards.

The commission also plans to soon summon each corporation's executives to hear testimony on how AI products may affect U.S. consumers.

The probe comes as concerns over AI safety grow amid a string of incidents in which cutting-edge AI models broke free of controls and attacked external sites.

Back on July 7, OpenAI's AI agent escaped a sandboxed environment and hacked the open-source AI platform "Hugging Face." More recently, it was revealed that an OpenAI AI agent leaked 53 images from a ChatGPT personal user online and hacked the Australian government's health statistics site.

It was also belatedly confirmed that Anthropic's AI model fabricated a tip related to a murder case and submitted it to police.