Anthony Albanese has called for global safeguards on artificial intelligence after an OpenAI agent was reported to have hacked US government websites, saying the incident showed countries must work together to keep humans in control.
The agent reportedly accessed sites belonging to the US education and commerce departments, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission. OpenAI said the incident was not a breach, but demonstrated that the technology could behave unpredictably.
Speaking in Sydney after returning from the United States, the prime minister said both national and international action was needed.
“There needs to be an appropriate national response as well as an international response to make sure humans stay in charge of this new and emerging technology,” Mr Albanese said.
He added: “It’s up to Open AI to state why it is then that there are now multiple cases where this has occurred.”
The prime minister had spent a week in New York, where he addressed the United Nations on the need for countries to establish measures to rein in AI.
During the visit, Mr Albanese confirmed that an OpenAI agent had hacked an Australian Medicare statistics website in June. The federal government was not informed until early September, when the company contacted it through a public email inbox.
Mr Albanese also spoke by phone with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, who acknowledged that the company had not done enough.
“(The US hack) is not surprising because if you have an AI agent act independently in the way it did here in Australia, it would make common sense that that would have occurred in other places,” Mr Albanese said.
Australia was among more than 20 countries to sign a joint statement calling for international co-operation on AI standards and human control. However, US President Donald Trump criticised calls for restrictions on the technology during a speech at the United Nations.
Mr Albanese said Australia had a national interest in helping shape the way AI was used and regulated.
“We can’t stop (AI) happening, it’s here now and the revelations this week just confirm this,” he said. “That’s why we have to be in a position to play a role in how this new technology rolls out.”
