Anthony Albanese has disclosed that an OpenAI artificial intelligence agent gained access to a Medicare system, while condemning the company’s chief executive over its handling of the “unacceptable” incident.
Speaking in New York, the Australian prime minister said the agent obtained unauthorised access to a public-facing portal containing Medicare statistics.
“No personal information is believed to have been accessed at this stage, but investigations are ongoing,” Albanese said.
He said the AI agent had been able to reach public files and other material that was not intended for public access.
“The evidence currently available indicates there has been no broader compromise of the Services Australia network. Nonetheless, this situation is obviously unacceptable,” Albanese said.
The breach occurred on June 18, but OpenAI did not notify the Australian government until September 10, when it reported the incident through a public email inbox.
“Today, I spoke with the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, to express Australia’s extreme concern about this incident,” Albanese said.
He said he also told Altman that the government was deeply disappointed by the delay in reporting the breach and by the way the notification was ultimately delivered.
Anthony Albanese has disclosed that an OpenAI artificial intelligence agent gained access to a Medicare system.
Albanese said he was disappointed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s response to the incident.
The federal government has also identified three other systems that may have been affected by the security breach.
Those systems include one operated by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, along with departments in New South Wales and Victoria.
Albanese said the investigation remained underway. The government will conduct a review examining possible law enforcement action and legislative responses.
“This is not something that has precedent, so we’re dealing with very complex issues,” Albanese said.
He added that OpenAI understood it needed to introduce stronger protocols.
The Medicare incident came only days after Altman identified two potential ways AI could “go very badly” and said they must be prevented.
“First, we could lose control of the future to AI,” he said.
“This is unacceptable; we are unapologetically on Team Humanity, and AI must always serve people.”
Anthony Albanese (right) met Donald Trump (left) on the sidelines of the United Nations, despite the pair’s clash over AI regulation.
“To ensure that, we need ways to make certain alignment and safety techniques remain ahead of progress in model capabilities.”
‘Second, we could end up in a world with too much concentration of power. If an extraordinarily powerful AI is used by one person or company to impress their worldview onto everyone else, the results could be extremely dystopian.’
The breach also coincides with Albanese urging countries at the UN to put in place safeguard measures for AI as the technology rapidly expands.
News of the breach comes two days after Albanese clashed with Donald Trump over how artificial intelligence should be regulated, as the President calls fears around it a ‘hoax’.
While in New York, Albanese had joined more than 20 world leaders in signing a statement calling for stronger international safeguards around AI.
Albanese also urged Trump and Xi Jinping to use their high-level meeting in Washington later today to discuss how AI should be regulated.
Shortly after, Trump then used his address to the UN General Assembly in New York to say he ‘totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control for the artificial intelligence’.
He urged world leaders to join him in changing the name of artificial intelligence to super intelligence.
‘Whoever wins SI, whoever wins super intelligence, wins,’ Trump said.
‘We’re leading now over China by a lot, and everyone else. And we’re going to keep it that way.
‘I’m not going to stifle growth of something that… many say will be bigger than the industrial revolution or the internet itself.
‘We’re going to encourage it, not rein it in.’
Our News Outlet has contacted OpenAI for comment.
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