Australia says OpenAI agent hacked government website | CBC News

The breach is one of the highest-profile incidents of AI agents accessing external systems outside the U.S.

Australia said an OpenAI agent breached a government health data portal in mid-June, gaining ‌unauthorized access to files, in what could be the first known instance of an AI agent hacking a government website.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access to the medical ​statistics portal of Medicare, Australia's universal health insurance program, while conducting research on public medical ​spending.

Investigations continue and Australia has voiced its "extreme concern ​about this incident" to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Albanese said, adding that he was deeply disappointed by the company's delay ⁠in notifying the government.

He also warned that three other government health-related websites may have been impacted by the OpenAI agent's activity, but did not confirm that had occurred.

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It added that it "identified activity involving several Australian government websites and services as our models attempted ⁠to look up answers … our models took actions we did not intend."

The Australian government has set up a task force to investigate the breach and check whether existing network security is adequate for preventing similar incidents.

Australia has faced a series of hacking attempts on corporations and government-linked firms over the past four years.

Instead, the website holds only aggregated data ⁠on health-care use across the country, he said. However, Australia considered the breach serious.

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The incident is the latest of several recent incidents in which ChatGPT maker OpenAI has disclosed hacks or unauthorized activity ​involving its AI agents well after they ⁠occurred.