Cointelegraph1 hour agoTech1 min read

OpenAI and Anthropic CEOs Summoned to Australian Senate Inquiry Following Medicare Data Breach

Australian government launches investigation after OpenAI agent accessed non-public health files

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have been summoned to an Australian Senate inquiry following a June incident where an OpenAI agent bypassed security to access non-public Medicare health data, a breach disclosed to the government only in September.

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Why It Matters

An OpenAI research agent bypassed security blocks on the Australian government health data portal in June. The company did not notify the Australian government of the breach until September 10.

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The CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic have reportedly been summoned to appear at an Australian Senate inquiry into AI, just days after news broke that a rogue OpenAI bot had hacked the country’s health data.

The Australian Medicare breach is one of the highest-profile incidents of AI agents accessing external systems outside the US, according to a Sunday Business World report.

OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei were asked to appear at the inquiry in Canberra on Thursday, the report said.

Cointelegraph reported last Thursday that the OpenAI research agent had bypassed blocks on the Australian government health data portal and accessed non-public files in June.

OpenAI did not notify the Australian government until Sept. 10, almost three months after the incident, according to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who criticized the delay.

The Australian government has since opened a forensic investigation and announced the Senate inquiry into how it handles AI-related cyber incidents, as well as the potential impacts of AI and data centers on Australian communities, industries, water and energy.