Canberra, Sep 24 (V7N)- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has revealed that an AI agent developed by OpenAI accessed public and non-public information on a government Medicare portal in June, prompting concern over the security of sensitive government systems.
Albanese disclosed the incident while speaking to reporters on Wednesday, just a day after he joined an international call for urgent global safeguards and regulation of advanced artificial intelligence.
The Australian prime minister said he had discussed the incident with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and conveyed the government's “extreme concern” over the breach. He also expressed disappointment that OpenAI took about three months to notify Australian authorities about the incident.
According to Albanese, the AI agent gained unauthorized access to public and non-public files on the Medicare Statistics Reporting Service, a government system administered by Services Australia.
OpenAI, however, said it was continuing to investigate the incident and had found no evidence that patients' medical or health records were accessed. The company said its review had identified activity involving several Australian government websites and services.
OpenAI said the models had attempted to retrieve information from the websites while seeking answers to various queries. The company has not indicated that patient information was compromised.
The incident has raised broader concerns about the ability of increasingly autonomous AI systems to interact with external websites and potentially bypass controls intended to restrict access to non-public information.
The breach came as governments and technology companies continue to debate international safeguards for advanced AI. Albanese had joined 21 other signatories in a joint appeal calling for stronger global guardrails for frontier AI models during the UN General Assembly in New York.
Australian authorities are examining the incident, while OpenAI's investigation remains ongoing. The available findings do not establish that individual patients' health records were accessed.
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