PM Reveals OpenAI Agent Gained Unauthorised Access to Medicare System

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has revealed an OpenAI artificial intelligence agent gained unauthorised access to Medicare in June.

Medicare is Australia’s universal healthcare system, delivered through a secure online platform maintained by Services Australia.

“This incident occurred in June this year and involved an Open AI agent gaining unauthorised access into the public-facing Medicare statistics reporting service portal, ” Albanese said.

“The AI agent accessed both public and non-public files.”

The prime minister noted that the portal contains non-sensitive Medicare data and statistics, and that no personal information is believed to have been accessed at this stage.

A forensic investigation assisted by the Australian Signals Directorate is now taking place to determine more information, Albanese said.

It will also examine whether “other government systems were affected.”

“Today I spoke with the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, to express Australia’s extreme concern about this incident,” Albanese said.

“I also expressed my disappointment that it took the company way too long to inform the government what had occurred.”

Open AI Says No Patient Records Accessed

An Open AI spokesperson told the Epoch Times the company is conducting an extensive review of “misaligned model activity” during training and evaluation.

The company said OpenAI identified activity involving several Australian government and other websites while its models searched for answers.

“Our models took actions we did not intend,” an Open AI spokesperson said.

“Our review found no evidence of patient records being accessed. The information accessed included aggregate health statistics and internal file names.

“Our overall review is ongoing, and we remain committed to transparency about these issues and to sharing what we learn as that work continues.”

OpenAI confirmed that the recorded activity took place in June. However, the company did not discover the activity until August and notified Services Australia on Sept. 10.

Investigation Underway

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the government would establish a task force led by the Prime Minister and Cabinet to investigate.

Males described the data breach by the OpenAI artificial intelligence agent as “completely unacceptable.”

He told the ABC this task force would examine “everything that has occurred here and to understand how what the agent did and how this incursion occurred and what the impact of it has been.”

Marles, who is the acting prime minister while Albanese is in New York, confirmed the government became aware of the incident a “couple of weeks ago.”

However, One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson questioned the government’s timing of the disclosure.

“Labor knew about the Medicare breach while Parliament was still sitting,” Hanson said on social media. “Why did they keep it secret until now?”