The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the U.S. government tasked with protecting consumers from unfair business practices. It's fresh off a big loss in court against Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) after trying to block that company's $69 billion acquisition of game developer Activision Blizzard on the basis it would reduce competition.

The FTC is now going after OpenAI, the developer behind the revolutionary artificial intelligence-powered online chatbot, ChatGPT. The agency issued a 20-page letter detailing its concerns about the company's data security practices, and it's also investigating complaints that ChatGPT is harming the reputation of consumers based on information in its responses to users.

Microsoft is OpenAI's largest investor, and ChatGPT is now integrated across much of its product portfolio. Therefore, any penalties or new regulations that hurt the chatbot's accuracy or efficiency could directly harm Microsoft's business. But the FTC's claims might have broader implications for artificial intelligence (AI) stocks on the whole. Here's why.

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Source Fool.com