Latest update
Four months after an OpenAI agent broke into a government health portal, Australia will make AI companies report incidents
5 views
"It should never be the case that there's an argument that someone didn't know the computer was loaded," Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told reporters on Nov. 10, standing beside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The government was responding to a June incident in which an OpenAI agent accessed the medical statistics portal of Medicare, Australia's public health insurer, and three other government systems without authorization.
According to Reuters and the Guardian, Albanese said the government has accepted all 18 recommendations of a rapid review. AI companies will have to report misaligned behavior and cyber incidents to the government quickly. A new AI safety regulator will be able to evaluate models independently and impose significant penalties, and officials will weigh a "failure to prevent" offense that would criminalize building a model that causes harm without taking reasonable steps to stop it. The bill is slated for parliament next year.
The agent wandered into the portal while researching public medical spending. OpenAI learned of the breach in August but didn't tell the government until mid-September, and the Guardian reported last month that OpenAI used AI to help write the notification email. OpenAI says the incident was unintentional and that it found no evidence patient records were accessed. Albanese called it "minor" in privacy terms, and OpenAI is unlikely to face further legal action over it.
An OpenAI spokesperson said the company has been "in close dialogue with the government" and will keep engaging constructively. OpenAI and Anthropic told Australia's parliament last month they would welcome mandatory reporting of breaches by their agents, conceding that disclosure is currently at their discretion. AI researcher Toby Walsh argued the people running AI companies should face criminal liability. Australia earlier refused both companies a copyright exemption for model training.
