White House Taps FTC To Be The Bulldog For AI Enforcement
The Trump administration tapped the Federal Trade Commission) to lead consumer protection and law enforcement on artificial intelligence.
Sean Moran·Oct 17, 2026·4 min read
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The Trump administration tapped the Federal Trade Commission) to lead consumer protection and law enforcement on artificial intelligence.
The White House’s AI task force met on Thursday and agreed to have FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson lead the “law enforcement and consumer protection coordination committee,” which includes the Justice Department and the agency he leads, according to Semafor. The agency has already led investigations into the AI industry and pro-AI groups believe that the federal government already has the capacity to police the industry.
“Chairman Ferguson is honored to be chosen by President Trump to work alongside an outstanding team and ensure that the US maintains its SI dominance all while protecting Americans,” Joe Simonson, the FTC director of public affairs, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a written statement.
One pro-AI group says that the president tapping the FTC proves that the administration already has the authority to ensure consumer protection and safety.
“President Trump continues to demonstrate that it’s possible to ensure American dominance in the Super Intelligence race while also protecting the American consumer. His decision to put FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson in charge of the Super Intelligence Force’s law enforcement and consumer protection work is just the latest example of that, an Innovation Council spokesperson told the DCNF.
“Despite what ‘doomers’ would have you believe, the federal government already has plenty of tools at its disposal to hold SI companies accountable for wrongdoing, and the FTC chairman will make sure they’re used for the benefit of the American people,” the spokesperson added.
The White House referred the DCNF to the FTC when asked for comment.
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President Woodrow Wilson and Congress created the FTC in 1914 with the enactment of the
“Throughout its work, the will engage with frontier model developers and other SI companies, consumer protection groups, and civil liberties advocates, industry stakeholders, and federal and state law enforcement agencies to inform and implement its efforts,” a White House official told the outlet.
“The stands ready to ensure implementation of the Accord and continued U.S. leadership on SI for the benefit of the American people,” the official continued.
Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, War Department Secretary Pete Hegseth, Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Krastios as well as White House chief of staff Susie Wiles are some of the most prominent members of the Super Intelligence Force, according to Politico.
War Department undersecretary Emil Michael, a vice chair of the task force, will create protocols through which AI companies can tell the government about hacks and other cybersecurity issues.
The FTC has led the administration’s investigations into AI safety practices.
The agency sent civil investigative demands to Anthropic and OpenAI, ordering the two AI labs to send over internal records on their models’ security incidents and safeguards, according to Axios. The FTC also seeks copies of the labs’ advertising and user privacy policies.
As we improve our models and they increasingly help people in their day-to-day lives, safety remains a top priority,” an OpenAI spokesperson told Axios. “We will engage constructively with the FTC.”
The FTC investigation may extend to other AI companies and plans to seek information from METR, the AI research group that investigated the breach of Hugging Face, which serves as one of the largest platforms for sharing AI models, per BBC.
Ferguson argued that AI developers should be held liable for the conduct of their agents, according to a September Reuters interview with the chairman. He has also said that the agency could take action against AI companies that do not disclose security breaches.
“If someone tells a tool to do something, and the tool does it, I don’t think we would say, ‘Oh, what do we do about the tool?'” he asked rhetorically.
The task force follows as Trump signed what he called a “morally binding” AI document with tech leaders that appears to set in place a light-touch regulatory approach to AI, according to the president’s post on Truth Social in October.
The president in October had cheered the industry’s “tremendous self-policing,” according to CNBC.
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