FTC Chair Fights AI 'Personification'

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson has voiced strong opposition to characterizing artificial intelligence as independent agents with their own desires. Speaking at the Reuters Momentum AI event on Friday, September 25, 2026, Ferguson declared his commitment to resisting the "anthropomorphizing" of AI tools. He highlighted that despite claims of AI systems acting beyond human command, subsequent audits of system actions have revealed they were consistently following their given instructions. This perspective underscores that AI behavior, as currently observed, is a direct result of programming and directives rather than emergent autonomy.