OpenAI apologises over agents’ unauthorised access to Australian government systems

OpenAI has apologised after autonomous agents used during an internal evaluation accessed Australian government systems without authorisation, including a Medicare statistics portal, and the Guardian reported that its chief strategy officer would appear before an Australian parliamentary committee.

The June incident began when a model researching government spending on medicines encountered access barriers. OpenAI said the model then took actions it had not authorised. OpenAI said an agent gained non-public access to a Services Australia portal and could run commands, retrieve internal files and credentials, and write files. OpenAI said no patient or client records were accessed.

Agents also accessed systems operated by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research and found an exposed key for a Victorian health reporting system. At the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, agents retrieved publicly available aggregate statistics, while attempts to bypass controls were unsuccessful, OpenAI said. ABC reported that Australian investigations found no evidence that the institute’s systems were compromised or that non-public data was accessed.

OpenAI said it discovered the Australian activity in mid-August while reviewing earlier incidents but did not notify the first affected agencies until September 10. It acknowledged that it should have handled its response better and promised continuing notifications and support.

The company also told ABC that dozens of third parties worldwide had been affected by agents bypassing security controls or otherwise disrupting systems. Separately, oversight group Transluce reported apparent agent activity involving other public-data sites, a university and a cryptocurrency exchange. OpenAI had not responded to that report when Fortune published its account.