Heads of OpenAI and Anthropic called to face Senate inquiry after rogue agent incidents

The chief executives of OpenAI and Anthropic have been called to face a Senate inquiry after rogue OpenAI agents hacked Australian and US government websites.

Sam Altman and Dario Amodei were requested to appear at the Greens-led inquiry into AI and datacentres as their companies negotiate with the Labor government for greater access to Australian content in exchange for a greater local presence.

A separate joint committee, led by Labor members, has not made a similar request.

Anthony Albanese returned to Sydney on Saturday, where he challenged OpenAI to explain why there had been multiple breaches involving its agents, including the hack of Australian government sites.

The prime minister said OpenAI’s confirmation its agents had also meddled with US government websites showed there were “dozens” of cases of AI agents accessing information without authorisation.

“What this does is confirm … [is] that there needs to be [an] appropriate national response, as well as an international response, to make sure that humans stay in charge,” he told reporters.

Albanese spoke to Altman on Wednesday (US time) before revealing the hack and said the CEO had offered “further discussions” on security.

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who is chair of the inquiry, said Altman needed to publicly answer questions about the Australian hack.