Australian PM Says AI Agent Broke Into Medicare Website, Confronts OpenAI Chief

source: abc

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said an artificial intelligence agent built by OpenAI broke into a government Medicare website in June, according to The Guardian.

He disclosed the breach while speaking to reporters at the United Nations summit in New York on September 23.

Albanese said the AI agent gained unauthorized access to the Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal, a public-facing site run by Services Australia that holds non-sensitive data on health spending. It accessed both public and non-public files, he said.

No personal information is believed to have been taken, and investigations are continuing. Albanese called the incident unacceptable.

PM Confronts Altman Over Delayed Notice

Albanese said he spoke directly with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman to express what he described as Australia's extreme concern about the incident. He also told Altman he was disappointed it took the company far too long to tell his government what had happened.

According to ABC News, Albanese said it took OpenAI three months to admit the breach. The way the notification eventually arrived, he added, was also unacceptable.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the government only learned of the June breach a couple of weeks ago, with ministers briefed just last week. He called it a very serious incident precisely because the intruder was not a human hacker but an AI agent.