AUSTRALIA REVEALS AI AGENT HACKED GOVERNMENT HEALTH PORTAL

Fri 25 September 2026:

Albanese says OpenAI-developed agent accessed public and non-public Medicare data as world leaders call for stronger AI safeguards

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has disclosed a security breach involving an artificial intelligence agent that accessed an Australian government website containing health-related information.

The disclosure came less than 24 hours after Albanese joined an international appeal calling for “urgent global guardrails” on advanced AI systems.

Albanese co-signed the “A Call for Control of Frontier AI Models” statement on Tuesday alongside 21 other signatories, including Canada, Spain and Germany, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Albanese said an AI agent developed by OpenAI had accessed both public and non-public information on the government’s Medicare portal in June.

He said he had spoken directly with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to convey Canberra’s “extreme concern” over the incident. Albanese also expressed disappointment that OpenAI had taken three months to acknowledge the breach.

OpenAI said later that day that its investigation was still under way and that there was no evidence that patient records had been accessed.

The company said its review had detected activity involving several Australian government websites and services while its models “attempted to look up answers”.

The incident comes as Australia moves to strengthen its regulation of technology, including new online safety measures, age restrictions and proposed digital duty-of-care requirements.

__________________________________________________________________________

https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22

__________________________________________________________________________

World leaders debate AI regulation

The Australian disclosure coincided with growing international concern over the risks posed by increasingly capable artificial intelligence systems.

AI experts and technology leaders warned of the potential dangers of insufficiently regulated AI development ahead of a 15-member UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday.

Yoshua Bengio, a Canadian AI scientist and co-chair of the Independent International Scientific Panel, described the technology as an “unprecedented threat”, warning of “real and imminent” dangers.

China’s UN ambassador, Fu Cong, said Beijing supported continued improvements to regulatory frameworks, emergency response mechanisms and international cooperation on AI.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the UK was prepared to take part in international efforts to establish AI standards.

“We’ve all heard the warnings which we must heed… so we have to rise to this moment,” he said, while also stressing the potential benefits of AI.

French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, warned against allowing the United States and China to dominate global decision-making over artificial intelligence.

Trump rejects calls for broad global regulation

US President Donald Trump has taken a different position from several international leaders, arguing that excessive regulation could restrict technological development.

Trump has compared the risks surrounding AI with climate change, which he has previously dismissed as a hoax.

During his UNGA address on Tuesday, he proposed referring to artificial intelligence as “super intelligence”, or SI, and said he intended to appoint an AI adviser.

In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump said the United States was leading China in the AI race and that he was “not going to stifle Growth”, while adding that Washington would exercise caution.

White House science and technology adviser Michael Kratsios echoed that approach during the UN Security Council meeting.

“You cannot govern technology you do not understand. This body and others like it should focus on sharing best practices to build domestic capacity, not establishing a global regulatory scheme,” he said.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

__________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

WhatsApp CHANNEL
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22