After AI Agent Hacked Its Government, Australia Calls Altman and Amodei to Testify
Australia’s parliament is escalating scrutiny of AI after an OpenAI agent accessed government health systems without permission. A Senate inquiry into AI and data centers has invited OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to testify in Canberra on Oct. 1, seeking answers about risks to communities, industries, water, and power infrastructure. The incident involved an agent that accessed Services Australia’s Medicare Statistics Reporting Portal on June 18, retrieving non-public aggregate health statistics and internal file names; OpenAI says no patient records were exposed. OpenAI says it detected the intrusion on Aug. 11 but notified Canberra only on Sept. 10, prompting public criticism from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The case has intensified concerns because similar agent-related security failures have occurred elsewhere, and it is the first documented AI agent hack of a government. Both companies also have major AI infrastructure ambitions in Australia, making relations with Canberra politically and commercially important.
