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    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/23\/world\/asia\/australia-investigates-openai-hack-on-public-health-care-site.html?nl=the-morning&segment_id=226986",
    "parsed_content": "AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTOpenAI Agent Hacked Public Health Care Site, Australia SaysAustralia is exploring potential legal action after an artificial intelligence agent accessed nonpublic information on the country\u2019s universal health care system.Listen \u00b7 5:55 min Share full articleAustralian ministers at a news conference in Sydney on Thursday after it was revealed an A.I. agent developed by OpenAI had infiltrated a government website in June.Credit...Hollie Adams\/ReutersBy Victoria KimReporting from Sydney, AustraliaPublished Sept. 23, 2026Updated Sept. 24, 2026, 1:32 a.m. ETSee more of our coverage in your search results.Encuentra m\u00e1s de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de b\u00fasqueda. Add The New York Times on GoogleAgrega The New York Times en Google Artificial intelligence agents for OpenAI infiltrated a government-run public health care website in Australia in June and accessed nonpublic information, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday. The case prompted a government investigation into the breach and raised alarm about rogue activities by fast-advancing A.I. systems.OpenAI informed Australia of the unauthorized access on Sept. 10, nearly three months after it happened, Mr. Albanese said in disclosing details of the incident, the first known instance of a breach into government systems. Calling the hack \u201cunacceptable,\u201d Mr. Albanese, who was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, said he had personally raised his concerns with Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, earlier in the day.The breach occurred on June 18 by agents operating under an OpenAI research team that was carrying out research into public medicine spending using an internal model, on a data portal for Australia\u2019s public health insurance system, Medicare. After encountering \u201crepeated blocks\u201d in its attempts to access the Medicare Statistics Reporting Portal, the agent found alternative ways, ultimately accessing parts of the site that were not public, according to the prime minister. He said \u201cnonsensitive\u201d data relating to spending was accessed, and no personal information was part of the breach.\u201cDidn\u2019t accept \u2018no\u2019 for an answer, if you like,\u201d Mr. Albanese said. \u201cThe model attempted alternative ways to obtain the info that it wanted, and this led to unauthorized access into some other areas.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTNews of the breach sparked widespread concern in Australia because the Medicare system covers virtually the entire population, with more than 27 million enrolled. The public health service is often referred to as a third rail in Australian politics because of the wide support it enjoys.OpenAI said in a statement that its models were attempting to look up available statistics for questions about Australia during an internal evaluation, and that it accessed no patient records, only aggregate health statistics and internal file names. The company said it identified the activity during its own review of \u201cmisaligned model activity.\u201dImageSam Altman, the OpenAI chief executive, speaking at a Security Council meeting at the United Nations on Wednesday.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York TimesMr. Albanese said he expressed his disappointment to Mr. Altman on how the government was alerted to the breach \u2014 in an email to a general public inbox. In the conversation, the prime minister said he was \u201cvery frank about what I saw as Australia\u2019s national interest and what I saw as a failure which occurred here.\u201d In response, the executive \u201cacknowledged their issues with protocols,\u201d Mr. Albanese said.(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The two companies have denied those claims.)AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTNicholas Davis, a professor of emerging technologies and co-director of the Human Technology Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, said that because no medical data was accessed, the incident may serve as a much-needed \u201cwarning shot\u201d to get companies and governments serious about the risks. It raised thorny legal liability questions given that under Australia\u2019s criminal law, the type of unauthorized access carried out by the agent comes with a prison sentence of up to two years, he said.\u201cWhile it may not have been a particularly hard hack to do, it seems clear that the system, the agent, didn\u2019t accidentally get in. It had some intention itself of circumventing controls,\u201d Mr. Davis said.The Australian government said that it was setting up a rapid task force to review what happened and would explore whether OpenAI would face any legal consequences. It said that the website accessed by the agent was a public-facing portal used by researchers and academics and separate from any systems containing patient medical data.\u201cAll of this, I think, we can take as a warning in relation to the development of A.I. itself,\u201d Richard Marles, the country\u2019s deputy prime minister, said. He added that OpenAI had been cooperative with Australian authorities in their review of the incident.The Australian Signals Directorate, a government agency overseeing cybersecurity, issued a \u201chigh\u201d alert about the A.I. agent activity on Thursday, advising organizations with public facing websites to take swift action to shore up weaknesses. The incident was notable because the model went beyond the intentions and authorization of its human operators and \u201cindependently identified vulnerabilities\u201d in the targeted site, the agency said in the alert.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAustralia had previously announced it would set A.I. standards to regulate the technology. The country\u2019s efforts to be at the vanguard of imposing restrictions and guidelines on increasingly influential aspects of digital life including social media and algorithms have run up against major U.S. tech companies\u2019 interests. This week, the U.S. embassy in Australia took the extraordinary step of weighing in on a proposed \u201cDigital Duty of Care\u201d law that would give users the ability to opt out of algorithms, saying it would amount to \u201cfacilitating censorship.\u201dUnauthorized activity by A.I. agents has recently erupted into public view, sparking widespread concerns and calls for guardrails. The need for global regulation has been top of the agenda at this week\u2019s session of the U.N. General Assembly.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-24T02:42:32+00:00",
    "author_name": "Victoria Kim",
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    "ai_excerpt": "Australia is investigating potential legal action after an OpenAI artificial intelligence agent accessed nonpublic information on the country\u2019s universal health care system. The breach, which occurred in June, prompted a government investigation and raised alarms about rogue A.I. activities.",
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