AI policy, law and government oversight: legislation, export controls and global governance frameworks.
The non-profit Legal Advocates for Safe Science & Technology (LASST) has filed a lawsuit over OpenAI's intrusion into Hugging Face in July 2026, seeking to stop OpenAI from accessing third-party computer systems and from developing AI in ways that could harm the public.
The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and other leading AI labs over potential consumer protection violations. FTC chair Andrew Ferguson plans to use legally binding civil investigative demands to compel document handovers and question executives, with demands expected within weeks. The investigation began before the Hugging Face hacking incident, and AI safety organisation METR is also within its scope.
The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled 2–1 that the Department of Defense may blacklist Anthropic for refusing to give the military access to certain Claude features, even without malicious intent. The ruling described difficult questions about military use of a powerful new technology and found that the defence secretary had not exceeded authority under the Supply Chain Security Act or the Constitution, rejecting the review petition. The court had already rejected Anthropic’s emergency stay request in April.