OpenAI apologized Monday after an experimental artificial intelligence agent gained unauthorized access to Australian government websites during internal testing, acknowledging that the company should have handled its response better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company said the incident occurred in June, when its agents accessed several Australian government portals using methods they were not authorized to use. The affected systems included Services Australia, the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Victoria\u2019s Department of Health and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OpenAI said an experimental model initially accessed the Medicare statistics service operated by Services Australia while attempting to find information about government spending on medications for skin conditions. The model encountered difficulties obtaining the information but discovered a way to access the service without authorization and subsequently used that access to examine technical information and source code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company said it found no evidence that patient medical records were accessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response, OpenAI said it will provide funding to support the affected organizations, strengthen cybersecurity measures and establish a local Australian group focused on developing practical policy recommendations for managing risks associated with AI agents. The company also said it wants to rebuild the trust of Australians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The incident drew criticism from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who called the situation \u201cobviously unacceptable.\u201d Albanese said he spoke with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and expressed Australia\u2019s concern over the incident and the time it took the company to notify the government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OpenAI apologized Monday after an experimental artificial intelligence agent gained unauthorized access to Australian government websites during internal testing, acknowledging that the company should have handled its response better. The company said the incident occurred in June, when its agents accessed several Australian government portals using methods they were not authorized to use. The affected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":524361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[611],"class_list":["post-524358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-deultimominuto"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-2cpo","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-09-29-at-12.03.23-PM.jpeg","dum_api":{"author_name":"Edith B\u00e1ez","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/cropped-WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-11-at-11.09.56-AM-96x96.jpeg","categories_name":["Technology"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-09-29-at-12.03.23-PM.jpeg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}