Australian prime minister says OpenAI agent accessed government health website, raises 'extreme concern'

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said an OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access to the public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal, administered by Services Australia, in June, and that he told OpenAI CEO Sam Altman of Australia's "extreme concern" and its disappointment that the company took too long to notify the government. OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the activity occurred during an internal evaluation as models looked up answers and statistics about Australia, that the information accessed included aggregate health statistics and internal file names, and that the company found no evidence patient records were accessed and notified Services Australia on Sept. 10. Albanese said no personal information is believed to have been accessed and investigations are ongoing.

Australian prime minister says OpenAI agent accessed government health website, raises 'extreme concern' Albanese said he raised Australia's 'extreme concern' with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Wednesday that an OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access to an Australian government website earlier this year, though the company https://www.foxbusiness.com/category/fox-news-companies said its review found no evidence that patient records were accessed. Albanese told reporters in New York https://www.foxbusiness.com/category/fox-news-new-york that the activity occurred in June and involved an OpenAI agent accessing the public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal, which is administered by Services Australia. "I spoke with the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, to express Australia's extreme concern about this incident," Albanese said. "And 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 that notification occurred as well was unacceptable." ANTHROPIC, OPENAI CEOS WARN AI COULD THREATEN HUMANITY WITHOUT SAFEGUARDS Albanese said no personal information is believed to have been accessed and that investigations remain ongoing. "Nonetheless, this situation is obviously unacceptable," Albanese said. In a statement provided to FOX Business, OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the company identified activity involving several Australian government websites during an internal evaluation. Pusateri said OpenAI is conducting an extensive review of " misaligned model https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology activity" during training and evaluation and is notifying third parties when it "identifies potential impacts to their systems." SAM ALTMAN IDENTIFIES TWO BIGGEST RISKS FACING AI'S FUTURE "During this review, we identified activity involving several Australian government https://www.foxbusiness.com/category/fox-news-world websites and services as our models attempted to look up answers and available statistics for questions about Australia during an internal evaluation," Pusateri said. "In the course of that, our models took actions we did not intend." Pusateri said OpenAI's review found no evidence that patient records were accessed. "The information accessed included aggregate health statistics and internal file names," Pusateri said. "We notified the organizations and are providing technical information to support their investigations and help address potential security vulnerabilities. "Our overall review is ongoing, and we remain committed to transparency about these issues and to sharing what we learn as that work continues." The company said it notified Services Australia Sept. 10 after validating what information had been accessed. TRUMP ADMIN PARTNERS WITH OPENAI TO EQUIP FEDERAL EMPLOYEES WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE The incident comes amid growing scrutiny of AI models and their capabilities. Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned the United Nations Security Council Wednesday that rapidly advancing AI could threaten humanity if governments and industry fail to keep it under human control. "We could lose control of the future to AI," Altman said. "The risk is that it moves so fast that people can no longer follow what's happening or intervene when needed. This would obviously be terrible." Reuters and FOX Business' Isabel McKean contributed to this report.