OpenAI faces allegations of infiltrating Australian government site with AI agent

OpenAI broke new ground in artificial intelligence attacks that have alarmed companies and governments in recent months.

The Australian government announced that an artificial intelligence agent developed by OpenAI infiltrated an official health data portal and accessed files in June. The incident is the first known example of an AI agent hacking a government site.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that an OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access to the medical statistics system of a government agency responsible for non-sensitive health data and statistics, including information on public health expenditure.

Albanese, who attended the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York, said at a press conference: "The currently available evidence shows that there is no evidence of wider compromise of the network. However, this situation is clearly unacceptable." he said.

INFORMATION WAS GIVEN TWO WEEKS AGO

Stating that the investigation is ongoing, Albanese said that Australia conveyed its "extremely serious concern" about the incident to OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman. He said he became aware of the cyber attack in June two weeks ago. The Australian Prime Minister stated that he was very disappointed with the company's delay in informing the government. “It took until September 10th to be notified.” Albanese said the investigation will also examine why government systems failed to detect the leak in the first place.

Albanese also warned that three other government sites "may have been affected" by the OpenAI agent's activities.

"ACTIONS WE DID NOT INTEND"

In its statement regarding the attack, OpenAI said, "No evidence was found that patient records were accessed. The information accessed included aggregate health statistics and internal file names." he said.

The company also said, "As our models worked to find answers, we detected activity across many Australian government sites and services. Our models took actions we did not intend." made the statement.