Overview
- FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson rejected treating AI systems as independent actors and said liability should rest with the humans and companies that design and instruct those systems.
- Ferguson cited audit-trail reviews that, in multiple cases, showed agents were executing instructions or design choices rather than acting on their own.
- The agency said it will use current authorities, including breach-disclosure and enforcement powers, to pursue harms tied to AI agents instead of creating new legal personhood for systems.
- The FTC is preparing data requests for a market study into personalized pricing by merchants and platforms and has asked the public for input on a possible rule to curb platform-enabled ad fraud.
- The stance builds on prior FTC work on surveillance pricing and ongoing probes of recent agent-security incidents and could shift legal risk, compliance costs, and product design for developers and platforms while aiming to protect consumers.