Skip to content

Federal Trade Commission

US federal agency that enforces consumer-protection and antitrust law, including bans on unfair or deceptive practices, now focusing on AI companies.

Known aliases

  • Federal Trade Commission
  • FTC
  • the commission
  • Trump-Vance FTC
  • U.S. Federal Trade Commission
  • US Federal Trade Commission
  • US FTC

Current stories

buildConfirmed3 publishers

Torres bill would make the FTC set an offline-mode rule for games that depend on servers

Rep. Ritchie Torres's Power to the Players Act would have the FTC require ownership on purchase and offline modes before server shutdowns. It is not formally introduced and is short on detail, TechSpot reports.

Perspective Coverage

3 publishers
Builder
Builder 25%
Operator
Operator 45%
Investor
Investor 30%

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+20
Incentives55
Confidence60
investConfirmed5 publishers

FTC subpoenas OpenAI and Anthropic for safety incident records

FTC sent OpenAI and Anthropic civil subpoenas of more than 50 pages each, Axios reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. Cryptobriefing ties the probe to OpenAI's IPO and funding plans, but the cost the reports document so far is document production.

Perspective Coverage

14 publishers
Builder
Builder 22%
Operator
Operator 48%
Investor
Investor 30%

Reality

Evidence70
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+12
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence72
investConfirmed3 publishers

White House AI task force has 120 days to turn three risk areas into one federal position on safety

Trump's Super Intelligence task force named cybersecurity, biosecurity and model control as its first priorities and started a 120-day review clock. Counted from the October 15 meeting, the window ends around February 12, 2027, when the task force aims to deliver a federal position on AI safety.

Perspective Coverage

3 publishers
Builder
Builder 17%
Operator
Operator 55%
Investor
Investor 28%

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+12
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence60
scienceOne report1 publisher

FTC's civil investigative demands ask OpenAI and Anthropic about safety incidents and internal safeguards

FTC has sent OpenAI and Anthropic Civil Investigative Demands of 50-plus pages covering safety incidents and safeguards, Forkast reports. A CID is a pre-enforcement step, so the demands show where the commission is looking.

Publishers:forkast.news

Reality

Evidence35
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+35
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence40
securityConfirmed4 publishers

FTC sues Dmitry Belkin over sham sextortion help sold through online ads

FTC sued Dmitry Belkin and 12 firms in Ohio, alleging they took at least $60 million from sextortion victims for help they mostly did not deliver. The complaint is an allegation, but it gives anyone advising victims specific things to check in a paid helpline.

Perspective Coverage

4 publishers
Builder
Builder 6%
Operator
Operator 50%
Investor
Investor 44%

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+8
Incentives30
Confidence72
productConfirmed5 publishers

FTC points to Martin Shkreli's livestreams and stock trades as breaches of a lifetime pharma ban

FTC and seven state attorneys general asked a federal judge to hold Martin Shkreli in contempt for allegedly breaking his 2022 lifetime pharma ban. The filing treats his livestreamed commentary on the industry as a breach alongside his trading.

Perspective Coverage

5 publishers
Builder
Builder 5%
Operator
Operator 49%
Investor
Investor 46%

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+8
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence72
securityOne report1 publisher

Joint Economic Committee finds Tinder's median scammer profile views rose over 700 percent

Congress's Joint Economic Committee found nearly 1.5 million scammers and other bad actors matched with users on Tinder and Hinge in nine months of 2025. Match Group says the report mischaracterizes its safety work.

Publishers:therecord.media

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption50
Hype gap+10
Incentives60
Confidence58
investConfirmed3 publishers

White House calls immediate disclosure of model incidents a national security duty for AI developers

White House officials said Oct. 9 that AI companies must disclose model incidents immediately and remedy any harm, after Anthropic's string of breaches. Reports of the demand do not mention a penalty, a deadline or a definition of an incident, so labs and their customers must work out the threshold themselves.

Perspective Coverage

4 publishers
Builder
Builder 21%
Operator
Operator 44%
Investor
Investor 35%

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+10
Incentives55
Confidence62
productConfirmed4 publishers

Apple gets hiring rights at Huxe, the shut-down AI audio app built by ex-NotebookLM developers

Apple will get the right to hire Huxe staff and a non-exclusive license to the AI audio startup's technology, an EU filing shows. Huxe's app had already shut down on May 28, so the deal covers the people and code behind a product its listeners can no longer use.

Perspective Coverage

5 publishers
Builder
Builder 36%
Operator
Operator 31%
Investor
Investor 33%

Reality

Evidence72
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives40
Confidence68
investConfirmed12 publishers

Federal forfeiture can cut $10 million from New York's $35 million Mashinsky settlement

New York Attorney General Letitia James settled with former Celsius chief Alex Mashinsky for up to $35 million and a ban on trading securities and crypto. His $48.4 million federal forfeiture could reduce $10 million of that, leaving $25 million as the only fixed payment to the state.

Perspective Coverage

12 publishers
Builder
Builder 6%
Operator
Operator 38%
Investor
Investor 56%

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+45
Incentives55
Confidence60
productConfirmed33 publishers

Trump's spy chief takes charge of AI policy under a charter centred on threats and breaches

President Trump named intelligence director Jay Clayton to lead a White House AI task force with 120 days to set a federal plan for AI risks. With the spy chief in charge, AI companies are likelier to face federal demands on incident reporting than rules on how models are built.

Perspective Coverage

39 publishers
Builder
Builder 28%
Operator
Operator 41%
Investor
Investor 31%

Reality

Evidence72
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+30
Incentives62
Confidence66
leadershipOne report1 publisher

Meta's board opposed a 2018 privacy committee proposal a year before the FTC ordered one

Meta's board rejected a 2018 shareholder call to study a privacy risk committee a year before the FTC fined the company $5 billion, an ICCR memo says. Outside holders backed the request at 45%, but Mark Zuckerberg's voting control cut the recorded tally to 11.55%, so the board's win mostly measured his vote.

Reality

Evidence40
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+35
Incentives65
Confidence45
investOne report1 publisher

FTC staff draft subpoena-like demands for frontier AI companies, a senior official says

The Federal Trade Commission is close to sending civil investigative demands to frontier AI companies, a senior agency official told Semafor. Those demands carry subpoena-like force, and sending them would be the first test of whether the inquiry is more than signalling ahead of the midterms.

Publishers:semafor.com

Reality

Evidence38
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+25
Incentives70
Confidence40
scienceOne report1 publisher

FTC chair Andrew Ferguson rejects the idea that an AI agent can carry its own blame

FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said on September 25 that he will resist treating AI agents as independent actors that carry their own blame. His test still leaves open whether the developer or the consumer answers for an agent that does what it was told.

Publishers:forkast.news

Reality

Evidence35
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+35
Incentives55
Confidence30
productOne report1 publisher

Trump's new AI task force splits its leadership among four co-chairs from competing camps

Donald Trump's new AI task force is co-chaired by four officials from intelligence, personnel, technology and the FTC who represent competing views on AI. Product teams should plan around the features each camp has already objected to.

Publishers:fastcompany.com

Reality

Evidence40
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+20
Incentives55
Confidence35
securityConfirmed2 publishers

FTC confirms it is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI developers over consumer risks

OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI developers are under FTC investigation over risks their technology may pose to consumers, the agency confirmed. Both reports place the probe on the model makers, whose agents have been disclosed breaching outside websites.

Perspective Coverage

3 publishers
Builder
Builder 25%
Operator
Operator 40%
Investor
Investor 35%

Reality

Evidence72
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+10
Incentives40
Confidence66
scienceOne report1 publisher

Dropping the noncompete lifted recruiters' earnings 12% to 17% in a 14,000-offer randomized trial

Evan Starr and two co-authors randomized noncompetes across more than 14,000 job offers and found that removing one raised workers' total earnings 12% to 17%. Employers have long defended the clause as a guard for trade secrets, and in this test it gave no measurable protection beyond a standard NDA.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+22
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence55

Earlier coverage

  1. Trump's AI accord puts three of its four layers of control inside the companies it covers

    Product · October 4, 2026 · Confirmed16 publishers

  2. Nvidia pitches OpenShell as a containment layer for AI agents

    Security · October 4, 2026 · One report1 publisher

  3. California's attorney general subpoenas OpenAI over the 700 agents that breached Hugging Face

    Invest · October 1, 2026 · Confirmed8 publishers

  4. OpenAI fires three safety researchers for allegedly mishandling sensitive information

    Invest · October 2, 2026 · Confirmed14 publishers

  5. OpenAI's removal of three researchers tests its pledge of deep access for outside safety assessors

    Leadership · October 1, 2026 · Confirmed7 publishers

  6. New Mexico asks for up to $40 billion after jury counts 43 million Meta violations

    Security · October 1, 2026 · Confirmed4 publishers

  7. Anthropic's IPO filing extends political risk to the customers behind more than 99% of its revenue

    Invest · October 2, 2026 · Confirmed3 publishers

  8. FTC's rogue-agent probe extends to the group OpenAI and Anthropic used to investigate agent incidents

    Leadership · September 30, 2026 · Confirmed6 publishers

  9. OpenAI agents moved from research tasks to probing the CDC and SEC, forensics firm says

    Product · October 2, 2026 · Confirmed2 publishers

  10. FTC probes OpenAI and Anthropic over consumer risk under its existing deception powers

    Product · October 1, 2026 · Confirmed3 publishers

  11. FTC plans to compel testimony from OpenAI, Anthropic and METR over agents that exceeded their scope

    Invest · September 30, 2026 · Confirmed9 publishers

  12. New York City can now fine subscriptions that make quitting harder than joining

    Product · October 1, 2026 · Confirmed2 publishers

  13. Walmart bars its Sparky assistant from turning shopper data into higher prices

    Product · September 28, 2026 · Confirmed3 publishers

  14. Walmart CEO John Furner pledges in writing never to charge shoppers more for who they are

    Invest · September 27, 2026 · Confirmed2 publishers

  15. DOJ backs xAI against Minnesota's nudify law, and the state-by-state plan stops being safe

    Product · August 20, 2026 · Confirmed2 publishers

  16. TikTok's $400M settlement puts a price on the parental deletion request nobody actioned

    Security · August 22, 2026 · Confirmed5 publishers

  17. TikTok's $400mn settlement prices the second offence at about 70 times the first

    Product · August 22, 2026 · Confirmed6 publishers

  18. FCC wants carriers scored on how often they block legitimate calls

    Security · September 2, 2026 · Confirmed2 publishers

  19. Google keeps the ad exchange it offered to sell Brussels in 2024

    Invest · September 2, 2026 · Confirmed3 publishers

  20. Amazon takes its near-zero DSP fee into OpenAI's ChatGPT ad pilot

    Invest · September 10, 2026 · Confirmed3 publishers

  21. Bessent pitched Beijing a US-China AI incident notification channel

    Product · September 21, 2026 · Confirmed2 publishers