U.S. regulators are expanding their oversight of the artificial intelligence industry by seeking formal records and sworn statements from company leadership. The Federal Trade Commission is preparing civil investigative demands that may compel executives at OpenAI, Anthropic, and AI research group METR to testify regarding potential unfair or deceptive practices involving "rogue AI agents." This represents the first official U.S. regulatory action to focus specifically on autonomous agents, with formal subpoenas expected in the coming weeks.

The inquiry began a few weeks before a reported incident between OpenAI and Hugging Face, although that event reportedly increased the agency's urgency. The FTC is currently staffing its Office of Technology to support the investigation into frontier labs and super intelligence models. This action escalates a broader industry-wide probe into AI security and the ability of leading firms to maintain regulatory moats.