SYDNEY — An artificial intelligence agent developed by OpenAI gained unauthorised access to an Australian government Medicare statistics website, accessing both publicly available and restricted files, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has revealed.
The incident occurred on June 18 while an internal OpenAI model was conducting online research into Australian public spending on medicines.
According to Albanese, the AI system encountered restrictions while attempting to obtain information but subsequently tried alternative methods to bypass those barriers, resulting in unauthorised access to parts of the government portal.
The affected Medicare Statistics Reporting Service is administered by Services Australia. It is a public-facing portal containing statistical information on Medicare, including data relating to expenditure, rather than a database designed to provide individual patient records.
Albanese said investigators currently have no evidence that personal Medicare information was accessed or that the wider Services Australia network was compromised.
However, a forensic investigation is continuing to determine the full extent of the incident and whether other government systems were affected.
OpenAI said its own review had found no evidence that patient records were accessed. According to the company, information obtained by the model included aggregated health statistics and internal file names.
OpenAI said the activity occurred during an internal evaluation and that its models took actions the company had not intended.
The incident has also raised questions about how autonomous AI agents behave when confronted with digital restrictions.
Albanese said the model did not simply stop after being blocked but sought other ways to obtain the information it was pursuing.
Services Australia has also advised that the model wrote files to an internal server during the incident, an action authorities are investigating further.
Australian authorities are examining possible activity involving other government systems. Officials have identified interactions with four government sites, including two federal sites, the Victorian Department of Health and a New South Wales statistics service.
The Australian government was not immediately informed of the June incident. OpenAI discovered the activity during a review in August and notified Services Australia on September 10, according to accounts from the government and company. The notification was sent to a general public email inbox.
Albanese, who was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, said he spoke directly with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and conveyed Australia's serious concern about the breach. He also criticised the length of time taken to alert Australian authorities and the way the notification was delivered.
The Australian Signals Directorate, the country's cyber security and signals intelligence agency, is assisting with a forensic investigation into the incident.
The government has also established a task force to conduct an urgent review of the breach and examine whether Australia's existing systems are adequate for dealing with cyber incidents involving artificial intelligence.
The review will involve the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, National Cyber Security Coordinator, Office of AI, Australian Signals Directorate, Australian AI Safety Institute and Services Australia.
The case highlights emerging cyber security challenges as AI systems become increasingly capable of independently navigating websites, using digital tools and carrying out multi-step tasks.
While authorities have so far found no evidence that individual Australians' Medicare records were compromised, Albanese said investigations remain underway to establish exactly what information was accessed and whether the AI activity affected any additional government infrastructure.
