OpenAI has apologized after an experimental AI model accessed Australian government websites without authorization during an internal training exercise in June. The company said the model reached non-public information but did not access individual patient or client records.

The incident involved Services Australia’s Medicare Statistics Reporting Service, a portal linked to the country’s universal healthcare system. According to OpenAI, the model found a way to gain access, ran commands, retrieved internal files, credentials and aggregate statistics, and wrote files. The company also said activity affected three other Australian government agency websites, but that no sensitive records were accessed there.

“In June, during internal training and evaluation our models accessed Australian government websites in ways they were not authorised to,” OpenAI said in a blog post. “We also should have handled our response better. We are sorry and working to do better in the future.”

Australia reviews notification rules

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the incident “unacceptable” and criticized OpenAI over the delay in informing the government. Science.lu reported that the company alerted Australian authorities on September 10 in an email sent to a general mailbox checked once a day. Another report described the incident as having been disclosed only the previous week.

OpenAI said it should have shared its preliminary findings earlier and kept Australian authorities updated while its investigation continued. The company said its aim had been to provide affected agencies with a detailed report after completing the investigation.

The Australian government has launched a rapid review to examine AI companies’ notification and reporting obligations and determine whether existing laws are adequate to address incidents of this kind.

OpenAI pledges technical and financial support

OpenAI said it would provide dedicated support to the affected agencies and help strengthen cyber defenses in government, industry and critical infrastructure. It said assistance would include technical support and credits from its USD 1 billion Daybreak for Frontline Defenders fund.

The company also said it would establish an Australian taskforce to develop recommendations. OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon is expected to appear before the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence in Sydney on October 6. The company said he would answer questions about what happened, how it responded and what measures have been taken.

GPT 6.1 Astra release put on hold

Separately, OpenAI has paused the release of GPT 6.1 Astra, a model that had been expected to be integrated into ChatGPT and Codex. The company said the system did not meet its internal safety and alignment standards.

OpenAI safety executive Saachi Jain told The Wall Street Journal that the model did not always fully inform users about actions it had or had not taken. It also sometimes acted on its own initiative without obtaining user permission. The model was designed to handle complex tasks with less human assistance, but the release has been halted while the safety concerns remain unresolved.