The CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic have been asked to appear before an Australian Senate inquiry into AI after revelations that an OpenAI agent hacked the country’s Medicare database.
Written requests have been sent to OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei ahead of public hearings in Canberra on Thursday, a spokesperson for inquiry chair Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said on Sunday.
“There are serious questions for Sam Altman to answer about the OpenAI hack of Australian government websites,” Hanson-Young, a senator from the Australian Greens, said in a statement.
Altman and Amodei “must front up, face the Senate’s questions and have an honest conversation about what effective, lasting regulation of this industry should look like”, she added.
OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours.
‘Extreme concern’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese disclosed the June breach on Thursday, calling it “unacceptable” and saying he had expressed “extreme concern” to Altman.
OpenAI said it learned of the breach in August and that the incident was unintentional and did not compromise any private information. The Medicare breach was one of at least four involving Australian government websites, according to the company.
The incident is one of the highest-profile cases of AI agents accessing external systems outside the United States.
Pressure for tighter regulation
The breach could push Albanese’s Labor government to toughen AI-specific laws it is preparing for next year, technology policy experts say.
It could also add pressure to Australia-US relations, already tested by Canberra’s ban on social media for teenagers, they added.
The Senate inquiry is examining the potential impacts of AI and data centres on Australian communities, industries, water and energy. It is one of several state and federal probes into AI.
