In this photo illustration a virtual friend is seen on the screen of an iPhone on April 30, 2020, in Arlington, Virginia.
The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday announced it is issuing orders to seven companies including OpenAI, Alphabet , Meta , xAI and Snap to understand how their artificial intelligence chatbots potentially negatively affect children and teenagers.
The federal agency said AI chatbots may be used to simulate human-like communication and intrapersonal relationships with users, and that it wants to understand what steps these companies have taken to "evaluate the safety of these chatbots when acting as companions," according to a release.
"Protecting kids online is a top priority for the Trump-Vance FTC, and so is fostering innovation in critical sectors of our economy," FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement.
Alphabet, Meta, OpenAI, Snap and xAI did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
The FTC said it is seeking information about how these companies monetize user engagement, develop and approve characters, use or share personal information, monitor and enforce compliance with company rules and terms of service and mitigate negative impacts, among other subjects.
Character Technologies, which operates the Character.ai bot, and Instagram, which is owned by Meta, were also named in the release.