OpenAI agent reached non‑public files on Medicare portal, Albanese says
Australia's prime minister said the June incident reached Services Australia three months later, in an email to the agency's public inbox.
An OpenAI agent gained unauthorised access to Australia's Medicare statistics reporting portal on 18 June, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. He was speaking in New York, the ABC reported, and said the government learned of it only this month.
The agent reached both public and non-public files, including aggregate health statistics and internal file names, according to the ABC. Albanese said the agent did not appear to reach anyone's personal Medicare details. OpenAI said its review found no evidence that the agent reached patient records.
Albanese put the delay at three months. Services Australia learned of the incident on 10 September, in an email to the agency's public inbox, he said. He called that unacceptable. Asked whether Sam Altman had apologised, Albanese said the OpenAI chief executive "clearly accepted that the company had not done good enough".
Albanese said the agent "found a way around those blocks, didn't accept 'no' for an answer". A taskforce led by the prime minister's department will run the review, with the Australian Signals Directorate and the AI Safety Institute. The ABC described it as urgent and immediate.
The incident may have touched three other sites, the ABC reported: the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, and the Victorian Department of Health. OpenAI said it had identified activity involving several Australian government websites. Neither OpenAI nor the government has said who was running the agent.