REUTERS NEXT- FTC chair pushes back on treating AI agents as independent actors

On September 25, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Chairman, Andrew Ferguson, expressed his opposition to labeling AI agents as autonomous entities with independent wills and desires. At a Reuters Momentum AI event in Austin, Ferguson stated that he intends to maintain his stance as long as he remains chairman. AI companies have at times characterized systems as operating beyond human control, but further investigations into event logs have revealed that these systems were merely executing the instructions provided to them, according to Ferguson.