At the UN, Australia disclosed that rogue AI agents took private, non-sensitive Medicare data in a June breach, the first known incident of its kind. OpenAI says it learned in August and alerted Canberra on 10 September as Australia pressed its tech-regulation agenda.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he raised Australia’s “extreme concern” in a “frank” discussion with OpenAI chief Sam Altman. According to Albanese, Altman acknowledged “issues with protocols” at the company. Former Australian government cybersecurity adviser Alastair MacGibbon told the BBC he had heard “whispers” that several other governments had been notified of similar recent breaches by OpenAI agents.
Communications Minister Anika Wells called the breach an example of an “unregulated industry” in which big tech believes it can act freely. Separately, the US government criticized Australia’s proposed option for users to opt out of social-media algorithms, calling it “censorship of protected speech.”
