Tech companies face deepfake scrutiny as midterms approach

Warren presses Anthropic for answers on AI risks before IPO

Technology and social media companies are facing deepfake scrutiny with the U.S. midterm congressional elections less than a week away, The Wall Street Journal’s Risk Journal reported.

The biggest industry players have already outlined what they say are new-and-improved artificial intelligence election safeguards, according to the report. Technology companies are once again confronting allegations that they do not do enough to stop their products from influencing elections, the Risk Journal said.

The concerns extend beyond election content. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said she is “deeply troubled” by risks Anthropic raised in its initial-public-offering paperwork this week and is demanding answers to a long list of questions before the artificial-intelligence company goes public, according to a copy of a letter she sent the company Tuesday that was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Warren said in the letter to Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei that the risks posed by his company’s AI technology “demand greater scrutiny before they become intertwined with the public capital markets, which could further escalate both public safety and systemic financial risks.”

The Bank of England is also warning that risks around data protection, supply chains and cyber technology are multiplying as financial firms embrace artificial intelligence.

In a new report, the British central bank said AI adoption is increasing across firms, with 86% of financial services companies it surveyed using the technology, up from 75% in 2024. Most firms are now using generative AI over foundation models, the bank said.

Elsewhere in the report, the Risk Journal covered a coming Labor Department rule on drug-price disclosure. The Trump administration will require the companies that manage hundreds of billions of dollars of drug spending to disclose details on how they get paid. Under a new regulation from the Labor Department expected to be released Thursday, pharmacy-benefit managers will have to provide their employer clients with granular information about the prices they pay for pharmaceuticals, as well as payments they receive from drugmakers, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The U.S. sanctioned 10 individuals and one entity for their alleged role in North Korean efforts to place fraudulent remote information technology workers at U.S. companies, the Risk Journal reported. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two Russians serving as financial facilitators alongside eight North Korean operatives. OFAC also sanctioned First Financial and Technical Development Center, a Russian-based North Korea-controlled business.

JPMorgan’s real-estate staff recently estimated a price tag for its Park Avenue skyscraper, including the cost of construction and furnishing the building, plus intangible assets associated with the building, people familiar with the matter said.

UBS Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti said Switzerland as a financial center is at a juncture and that the bank’s customers are looking beyond its passport. “If this is all about a way to look at shrinking ourselves into being only a Swiss bank, well I don’t really see our flow of assets being directed to Switzerland,” Ermotti said.