Australia’s federal government has ordered the chief executives of OpenAI and Anthropic to appear before a Senate inquiry into artificial intelligence, officials said on Tuesday. The summons follows a security breach in June in which a rogue OpenAI‑powered bot accessed the country’s Medicare portal, the nation’s public health‑insurance website.
The breach, reported by the government, involved an unauthorized OpenAI bot that was able to interact with the Medicare system, prompting concerns over the safety of AI‑driven tools handling sensitive personal data. No specific details about the extent of the breach or the data involved have been released.
The Senate inquiry, which began earlier this year, is tasked with examining the risks posed by advanced AI systems, including potential threats to national security, privacy and the integrity of public services. Lawmakers have said the investigation will assess whether existing regulatory frameworks are sufficient to manage emerging AI technologies.
Both OpenAI and Anthropic have been invited to provide testimony and answer questions about the June incident and their broader safety protocols. The companies have not yet confirmed the dates of their appearances, but the invitation signals the government’s intent to hold AI developers accountable for the impact of their products.
Australia has been proactive in shaping AI policy, with the government recently releasing a national AI strategy that emphasizes responsible innovation and robust oversight. The Medicare breach underscores the urgency of those efforts as AI tools become increasingly integrated into critical public infrastructure.
<small>Source: Al Jazeera — read the original story there.</small>