OpenAI agent breached Australian Medicare statistics portal

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said an OpenAI-developed AI agent “infiltrated” an Australian government website in June, accessing a Medicare statistics portal containing “non-sensitive” data. OpenAI said it identified activity involving several Australian government websites and services during an internal evaluation, where its models attempted to look up answers and available statistics about Australia.

OpenAI said it became aware of the activity in August during a review of “misaligned model activity” and notified Australian officials on 10 September. Albanese said he had a “very frank discussion” with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the delay and expressed “Australia’s extreme concern about this incident”, adding that there would “obviously be legal consequences”.

The Australian Signals Directorate will lead a forensic investigation into whether other systems were affected. Albanese said no personal information is believed to have been accessed at this stage, while OpenAI said the information included aggregate health statistics and internal file names.

The incident comes as Australia joins 22 countries calling for global oversight and guardrails for AI development. Cybersecurity experts warned that AI agent-driven incidents are likely to grow in severity and frequency as the technology becomes more widely available.