Australia says OpenAI agent hacked government site before Altman warning

An OpenAI research agent bypassed blocks on an Australian government health data portal, accessed non-public files and wrote files to an internal server in June, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday.

The government has opened a forensic investigation and announced a review of how it handles AI-related cyber incidents.

OpenAI did not notify the Australian government until Sept. 10, nearly three months after the incident, according to Albanese, who criticized the delay.

The incident adds to concerns over autonomous AI agents as tech leaders and governments debate slowing the development of cutting-edge models and researchers uncover agent activity extending into crypto.

OpenAI agent “didn’t accept no”

Australia’s incident began on June 18, when an OpenAI research team used an internal AI model to gather publicly available data on medicine spending, according to Albanese.

After being repeatedly blocked, the agent “didn’t accept no for an answer” and gained unauthorized access to other areas of the Medicare Statistics Reporting Portal. The public-facing portal contains non-sensitive Medicare data, including statistics on government spending, the prime minister said.

“No personal information is believed to have been accessed at this stage, but investigations are ongoing,” Albanese said.