The FTC has a plan for regulating AI—without creating new rules for AI

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. The FTC is coming for OpenAI and Anthropic over AI safety claims On Tuesday, some of the biggest companies in AI went to the White House and agreed to police themselves. The next day, they got a reminder that the government can in fact police them, too. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic, and other artificial intelligence companies over the risks their products may pose to consumers, according to The Wall Street Journal. The probe was opened recently, and predates Tuesday’s White House event, so the timing appears to be coincidence. The agency has not said which other companies are involved or which specific statements or practices are under scrutiny. The FTC has not yet issued formal demands, but plans to seek company documents and testimony from executives in the coming weeks. It also plans to seek information from METR (Model Evaluation & Threat Research), the outside evaluator that investigated OpenAI’s hacking incident this summer. The FTC has not said why i…