Australia's Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles said it was "utterly unacceptable" that an OpenAI artificial intelligence agent gained unauthorized access to part of the country's universal healthcare system, confirming that the government had launched an investigation into whether any laws were breached.

Marles, who is serving as acting prime minister while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attends the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, said a government task force would examine the incident and assess whether Australia's existing laws are adequate to address emerging AI capabilities.

Prime Minister Albanese revealed in New York that an OpenAI AI agent obtained unauthorized access to the Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal, administered by Services Australia, on June 18. The AI agent accessed both public and non-public files, but the government said there was no evidence that any individual's Medicare records or personal medical information had been compromised.

According to Albanese, Services Australia was not informed of the incident until September 10, nearly three months after it occurred. The prime minister said he had expressed Australia's "extreme concern" and disappointment directly to OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman over the delay in notifying the government.

Marles said Australian authorities had also raised concerns with OpenAI over the delayed notification.

"The government is taking this very seriously," he said. "At the same time, it is important to reassure the Australian public that the impact of this incident was relatively minor. We are talking about aggregated medical statistics. No individual's medical data was accessed, and the system itself was not compromised."

The acting prime minister said the task force would investigate whether Australian laws were violated and whether the current legal framework remains fit for purpose as AI systems become more capable.

OpenAI said the activity occurred during an internal evaluation in which one of its AI models was researching publicly available information. The company said its review found no evidence that patient records had been accessed and stated that it is cooperating with Australian authorities as investigations continue.(ILKHA)