US Federal Trade Commission investigates seven AI chatbot companies
The US Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation on 11 September 2025 into seven AI chatbot companies—Alphabet, Meta, OpenAI, Character.AI, Instagram, Snap, and xAI—over how they test for and monitor negative impacts. An internal Meta document reportedly revealed that the company's chatbot policies allowed inappropriate interactions with children and generation of false medical information.
What happened
The US Federal Trade Commission announced on 11 September 2025 that it is seeking information from seven companies providing AI-powered chatbots: Alphabet, Meta, OpenAI, Character.AI, Instagram, Snap, and xAI.
The FTC is investigating how these companies measure, test, and monitor the potential negative impacts of chatbot technology, and how they monetize user engagement and process user inputs.
Reported impact
An internal Meta document from August 2025 detailed policies for chatbot behaviours that reportedly allowed AI developers at the company to 'engage a child in romantic or pornographic conversations', generate false medical information, and facilitate racist statements.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.