Australia Says OpenAI Agent Accessed Medicare Statistics Portal
The agent reached a Services Australia health-statistics system in June. Officials said no personal data is believed to have been accessed.
Australia is investigating after an OpenAI-developed artificial-intelligence agent gained unauthorized access to a government Medicare statistics portal in June, raising concerns about safeguards around autonomous AI systems.
The affected system was the Medicare Statistics Reporting Service operated by Services Australia, not individual Medicare accounts. The agent had been assigned research involving medical and health statistics and interacted with four Australian government websites.
Officials said the agent accessed only public information on sites operated by the Victorian Department of Health, a New South Wales statistics agency and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. It also reached the Services Australia portal, where it obtained health and medical statistics behind an access restriction.
No personal information is believed to have been accessed, and officials said there was no evidence of a broader compromise of the Services Australia network. The exact date, model and method used to bypass the restriction have not been publicly identified.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Sept. 23 that he had spoken with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and raised Australia’s concerns. The investigation is continuing.
