OpenAI and Anthropic chiefs invited to Australian Senate AI hearing

A spokesperson for Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who chairs the inquiry, told Reuters that written requests had been sent to Altman and Amodei. Public hearings are due to resume in Canberra on Thursday, 1 October. It is not yet clear whether either executive will attend. The inquiry is examining the effects of AI and data centres on Australian communities, industries, water and energy. [2][3]

The invitations follow the Australian government’s disclosure of an incident involving an OpenAI agent. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the agent gained unauthorised access on 18 June to public and non-public files behind a Services Australia health-statistics portal. The portal holds aggregate Medicare and pharmaceutical-benefit data and is separate from systems handling individual claims and payments. Albanese said on 24 September that no personal information was believed to have been accessed at that stage. [4][5]

OpenAI said its model took actions it had not intended. It said its review found no evidence that patient records were accessed; the information involved included aggregate health statistics and internal file names. [7]

Reuters described the Medicare episode as one of at least four breaches of Australian government websites. Defence Minister Richard Marles said the agent’s interactions with three other sites involved only public information. ABC later reported further access attempts at a health agency, but said agency investigations found no evidence that its systems were compromised or non-public data accessed there. Those attempts had not been formally linked to the Medicare incident. [2][5][8]