OpenAI agent ‘infiltrated’ Australian Govt Medicare portal, PM Albanese calls it ‘unacceptable’: What happened?

An Artificial Intelligence agent developed by OpenAI ‘infiltrated’ an Australian government website in June, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on 24 September, according to multiple media reports.

The 'breach' is one of the highest-profile incidents of AI agents accessing external systems outside the United States, coming on top of several recent breaches globally by AI agents that have alarmed governments and companies, CNA reported.

The agent hacked a statistics portal containing ‘non-sensitive’ data from Australia's universal healthcare scheme Medicare, Albanese was quoted as saying by BBC in New York on Wednesday, local time.

Australia was extremely concerned and disappointed at an OpenAI security breach that Open AI too long to reveal, Albanese said, according to news agency AP.

"Evidence currently available is there is no broader compromise to the ... network. Nonetheless, this situation is obviously unacceptable," Albanese said during a media briefing in New York.

Albanese made the breach public following a telephone conversation with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman. Albanese and Altman are currently in New York City to address the United Nations General Assembly.

“Today I spoke with … Altman to express Australia’s extreme concern about this incident,” Albanese told reporters.

“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 notification occurred as well was unacceptable,” Albanese added.

What was the breach?

An OpenAI agent had infiltrated an Australian health department website on July 18, the Australian Prime Minister said.

In a statement, OpenAI said it only became aware of the incident in August "during an ongoing review" of "misaligned model activity", and told Australian officials on 10 September. While the review is ongoing, OpenAI said that it was not believed any patient records were accessed.

Australia to investigate the breach

(With inputs from AP)

Gulam Jeelani