Updated ,first published
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has revealed that an artificial intelligence agent developed by OpenAI infiltrated an Australian government website in June, accessing public and non-public files.
Speaking to reporters in New York, Albanese said the incident involved an OpenAI agent gaining unauthorised access to the public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal, administered by Services Australia.
“This incident occurred in June this year, and involved an OpenAI agent gaining unauthorised access into the public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal, which is administered by Services Australia,” Albanese said.
He said the agent accessed publicly available files, as well as material not intended for public access.
“Evidence currently available is there is no broader compromise to the Services Australia network. Nonetheless, this situation is obviously unacceptable,” he said.
“And today, I spoke with the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, to express Australia’s extreme concern about this incident. And I also expressed my disappointment that it took the company way too long to inform the government what had occurred, and the nature of the way that that notification occurred as well was unacceptable.”
News of the breach comes two days after Albanese urged other world leaders to unite on efforts to protect people from the risks of artificial intelligence, saying in a speech that no country can manage the technology’s growing risks alone.
Australia was among a group of 22 signatories to call for new international safeguards on AI at the United Nations on Monday, amid warnings from scientists and industry executives that the rapid development of powerful systems could outpace governments’ ability to control emerging risks.
The prime minister joined colleagues, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to call for mandatory safety testing, independent evaluations and greater international oversight of so-called frontier AI models.
More to come
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Rob Harris is the national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Canberra. He is a former Europe correspondent.Connect via email.From our partners
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