Federal Trade Commission: AI Companion Chatbot Inquiry

Consumer protection and competition

Created in 1914, the Federal Trade Commission has consumer-protection and competition responsibilities. Its tools include enforcement actions, research and information gathering. In AI, these responsibilities can concern how a product is represented, how it handles personal data and whether business practices harm consumers or competition. [1]

What the chatbot inquiry did

The FTC’s September 2025 inquiry issued Section 6(b) orders to seven legal recipients offering companion chatbots. The requested information concerned testing and monitoring, user engagement, disclosures, safeguards and personal-data practices affecting children and teenagers. [2]

The FTC explicitly describes Section 6(b) as authority for broad studies without a specific law-enforcement purpose. The orders compelled information; their issuance did not establish that every recipient had violated a law or that the agency had approved any chatbot as safe. [2]