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The Federal Trade Commission is close to sending investigative demands to frontier AI companies, a senior agency official told Semafor — a sign that its AI probe is moving forward after its unusual disclosure to the public.
The FTC’s planned AI inquiry emerged in a New York Post story as the White House raced to project seriousness about the rise of tech that President Donald Trump has made clear he wants to treat with a light touch. Less than 24 hours before news of the FTC probe, the agency’s chair appeared alongside Trump and AI CEOs to announce a nonbinding accord that pledged industry self-regulation.
It’s rare for the FTC to reveal an investigation before it sends civil investigative demands, which have subpoena-like force. And it’s even less typical to do so well before any decision has been made about a potential lawsuit or settlement.
The leak of the AI probe raised the question of whether FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson — who was since appointed to Trump’s AI task force — plans an in-depth inquiry or a probe that’s more designed to convey the appearance of serious action ahead of the midterms.
Yet the senior FTC official reiterated to Semafor that it plans a significant probe, revealing it to the media due to public health and safety concerns about AI systems. The CIDs being sent to AI companies are dozens of questions long, according to the official, encompassing what the companies have said about the dangers of their products and other questions around consumer harm.
While two people with knowledge of the matter told Semafor that career FTC staff learned from the press — not agency leadership — about the AI investigation, the senior official disputed that. Career staff attorneys in the Bureau of Consumer Protection are drafting the CIDs, the senior FTC official said.
“Career staff who do not leak to the media are working hard every day on issues of importance to the American people, including” the AI inquiry, the official added.
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One well-known exception to the FTC’s practice of not publicizing investigations was its revelation of an inquiry into Meta’s privacy practices after the 2018 Cambridge Analytica data release scandal, a move that responded to overwhelming public interest. A similar step occurred in 2017, when the agency confirmed it was investigating Equifax after a massive data breach.
One former FTC official told Semafor that the agency tries not to “publicize investigations in advance, because you don’t want people to prejudge the investigation. The simple fact that there is an existing investigation will impact a company’s stock price and operations.”
Yet William Kovacic, a former Republican FTC chair, said confirming an investigation in the press is “unusual,” but not without precedent and “not in any sense improper.”
“You don’t do this unless you want to make clear to the larger public that you’re looking at a particular issue,” he said.
The announcement, which may also target independent AI evaluator METR, aligned with Trump advisers’ approach to AI safety: Apply the laws on the books without adding new regulatory requirements. That differs wildly from what many bipartisan members of Congress, state regulators, the public and even AI companies have said they want: new rules and restrictions for AI as the technology reaches alarming capabilities.
Ferguson has said that he does not consider the agency to be an AI regulator. The Trump administration’s 2025 AI Action Plan called for a review of all FTC investigations commenced under former President Joe Biden to “ensure they do not advance theories of liability that unduly burden AI innovation” and even modify existing orders that may “unduly burden AI innovation.”
The AI industry appears unsure about where Ferguson is heading: “We’re trying to find out more about that,” OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane said in an interview last week when asked about the investigation.
Anthropic, also named in the initial report, declined to comment. METR didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Room for Disagreement
Former FTC chair Lina Khan told ABC on Sunday that she doubts Ferguson is serious: “You have on the one hand, these CEOs of these AI companies wining and dining at the White House, the idea that the next morning they’re going to get some type of credible subpoena from the same administration I think just strains credulity.”
Asked about Khan’s remarks, Kovacic said: “When you’ve tied your destiny so close to the White House, you’re inevitably going to raise questions about the sincerity and the aggressiveness of the inquiry … The only way to dispel those concerns is to carry out a serious inquiry and explain what you’re doing along the way.”
Ashley’s view
Ferguson is wearing very different hats here, and we are seeing him embody the resulting tension in real time. As Trump embraces a hands-off approach to AI growth, he’s made clear by his task force participation that he aligns with the president.
But he’s also the country’s top consumer protection official, and he has shown he can go after tech when he wants to. On the antitrust side, he’s taken Meta to court and will face Amazon in court next year; he also previously asked AI companies about kids’ chatbot practices; it’s not clear what will come of that.
With AI safety is very much on the public’s mind ahead of Election Day, we might be seeing the Trump administration’s best recipe to assuage voters for the rest of the year: an investigation alongside a pledge for self-regulation.
That investigation, of course, may not result in much. These probes can take a long time, and AI companies are a long way from any finding of wrongdoing.