Australia has summoned the chief executives of OpenAI and Anthropic to appear before a Senate inquiry into artificial intelligence, following revelations that an OpenAI bot accessed the country’s Medicare portal.
Sam Altman of OpenAI and Dario Amodei of Anthropic have received written requests to attend public hearings in Canberra on Thursday, according to a spokesperson for Senator Sarah Hanson-Young of the Australian Greens.
The inquiry is examining the potential effects of artificial intelligence and data centres on safety, data transparency, communities, industry, water and energy.
Hanson-Young’s spokesperson said there were “serious questions for Sam Altman to answer about the OpenAI hack of Australian government websites”.
The spokesperson added that both executives “must front up, face the Senate’s questions and have an honest conversation about what effective, lasting regulation of this industry should look like”.
The request follows the disclosure that an AI agent developed by OpenAI accessed public and non-public data on an Australian government Medicare portal in June.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the incident after revealing the details at a press conference in New York. The episode is among the highest-profile cases of an AI agent accessing external systems outside the United States.
OpenAI said it was still investigating and had found no evidence that patient records were accessed. The company said it only learned of the breach in August.
Its review identified activity involving several Australian government websites and services, which OpenAI said occurred as its models “attempted to look up answers”.
OpenAI and Anthropic had not immediately responded to requests for comment outside business hours.
Australia’s Labor government is also introducing tighter technology regulation, including new online safety laws, age bans and proposed digital duty of care frameworks.
