OpenAI AI Agent Accessed Australian Government Medicare Portal Without Authorisation

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed that an OpenAI AI agent accessed an Australian government website without authorisation in June. The incident involved a portal holding Medicare related data and statistics, including some public and some non-public files. Albanese described the data as non-sensitive, relating to spending and statistics rather than personal health records, and said Australia's Signals Directorate is now investigating.

OpenAI said the incident was uncovered during an internal review of unusual model behaviour, in which its systems attempted to look up information about Australia during testing and ended up interacting with several government websites and services in unintended ways. The company stated the information accessed included aggregate health statistics and internal file names, and that no personal information was taken.

Albanese said he raised the matter directly with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, criticising both the intrusion itself and the delay in reporting it. Although the incident occurred in June, OpenAI did not notify the Australian government until September 10, a gap the Prime Minister called unacceptable.