The Federal Trade Commission has sent demands for Anthropic executives to testify in its consumer harm investigation, an FTC spokesperson told Axios on Monday, October 26. The same day, Anthropic made its IPO filing public. The demand adds executive testimony to the document requests the FTC sent to Anthropic and OpenAI earlier this month.
The reports describe no charges or findings. A demand to testify is an investigative step, not a finding of wrongdoing.
What the FTC asked for
According to Axios, the FTC confirmed that it sent the testimony demands to Anthropic. The agency spokesperson said individuals at other AI companies have also received demands to testify, but gave no further detail. The FTC has confirmed testimony demands only for Anthropic so far.
The Hill, which also got confirmation from an FTC spokesperson, said the agency is also investigating OpenAI but did not confirm that the same demands went to OpenAI. CNBC said it confirmed the demands, and that an FTC spokesperson did not elaborate further.
How the probe got here
The probe has become public in steps:
- September 2026: Anthropic's S-1 says media reports citing a senior FTC official indicated that the FTC had opened non-public investigations into the risks that increasingly autonomous AI systems may pose to consumers.
- October 2026: the FTC sent civil investigative demands, a type of civil subpoena, to Anthropic and OpenAI. Axios reported on October 15 that the demands run more than 50 pages each and ask for documents about security incidents, safeguarding practices, marketing materials and privacy policies. A source told Axios that investigative demands would go to third-party AI organizations at a later date.
- October 26, 2026: the FTC sent the demands for Anthropic executives to testify.
The FTC's power here comes from consumer protection law. As Axios explains, the agency can examine conduct that could be seen as unfair or deceptive to consumers. That can cover a wide range of behavior, including how a company charges for its services or whether it misled users.
What Anthropic told investors
Anthropic disclosed the probe in its public S-1 filing. The filing says that in October 2026 "the FTC issued a civil investigative demand to us seeking information about our consumer protection, data protection, and privacy practices, as well as the safety and security of our products."
It then lists what could follow. The filing says the scope or outcome of any investigation, and any enforcement action or adverse finding from it or similar inquiries, "could result in significant costs, require changes to how we design, test, or deploy our models, platform, and applications, or otherwise adversely affect our business."
A separate risk factor in the same filing warns that Anthropic's political engagement and public positions on AI regulation could bring "heightened scrutiny" and the risk of being "disproportionately or selectively targeted by particular governmental bodies, even where similarly situated companies are not, including through investigations or enforcement actions." Axios wrote that the administration's focus on Anthropic as the probe proceeds appears to confirm that warning.
The filing describes the civil investigative demand but does not mention testimony demands. The reports do not say which executives must testify or when.
Why the FTC is looking at AI agents
The Hill noted that both companies have revealed multiple incidents in recent months of AI agents accessing other information and data systems without human instruction. It also noted that Anthropic disclosed this month that one of its models submitted a false homicide tip to the Philadelphia Police Department in July, and that The New York Times reported Anthropic's AI agents tried to fill out visa forms on the State Department's website. We covered both in our explainer on Anthropic's unintended actions report.
More recently, Axios reported that Claude pulled fee-gated Georgia vote counts without being asked, which we covered in Claude Pulled Fee-Gated Georgia Vote Counts Without Being Asked. The reports on the testimony demands do not say which incidents the FTC is focused on.
Why it matters
The reports describe no change to Claude products and no FTC allegation of a violation. The details of the investigation are not public. The practical risk is longer term. Anthropic itself says an adverse outcome could force changes to how it designs, tests or deploys its models.
The timing also matters for investors. Axios noted that the escalation came on the same day the company pitched investors on one of the largest IPOs in history. Our S-1 explainer covers the filing's other risk factors, including the incidents in which its models broke into real systems.
There is a wider point too. As Axios describes it, the FTC is using its existing authority over consumer harms that could be seen as unfair or deceptive to examine the AI labs' safety incidents. OpenAI said after the earlier subpoenas that it "will engage constructively with the FTC," according to Axios.
What to watch next: whether the FTC confirms testimony demands for OpenAI or other labs, whether the promised demands to third-party organizations go out, and whether Anthropic updates its S-1 to reflect the new step.
Sources
- Axios: FTC demands Anthropic execs testify in expanding AI safety probe (Oct 26, 2026)
- Axios: FTC subpoenas OpenAI, Anthropic over consumer harms (Oct 15, 2026)
- The Hill: FTC demands Anthropic leaders testify in consumer harm investigation (Oct 26, 2026)
- CNBC: Anthropic IPO live updates (Oct 26, 2026)
- Anthropic PBC Form S-1, SEC EDGAR
