OpenAI agent hacked Australia government portal: PM Albanese

An OpenAI agent infiltrated an Australian government health data portal, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday, in what is the first known instance of an artificial intelligence hack of a government system.

Albanese said the breach occurred in June when an autonomous OpenAI program accessed both "public and non-public" files on the statistics reporting portal of Medicare — Australia 's publicly funded universal health insurance scheme.

The available evidence did not indicate a broader network compromise, Albanese said, adding, "Nonetheless, this situation is obviously unacceptable."

Albanese said he spoke to OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman to express Australia's "extreme concern" over the incident.

OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT ,  said in a statement that it spotted the breach while carrying out an "extensive review" of its AI tools, adding that "our models took actions we did not intend".

Altman had earlier on Wednesday addressed the UN Security Council, apprising the risks AI poses as the world faces the technology's development.

Albanese told reporters that OpenAI informed Australia about the breach only on September 10, three months after the incident, through an email sent to a public mailbox.

The Australian leader said he expressed his "disappointment" to Altman that it took OpenAI "way too long to inform the government" on what occurred.