OpenAI, Anthropic CEOs summoned by Australia’s Senate amid AI probe
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Photograph: (AFP)
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have been summoned by Australia’s Senate for an AI inquiry after an OpenAI bot breached government websites.
The CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic have been summoned to appear before an Australian Senate inquiry into artificial intelligence, days after an OpenAI bot was revealed to have breached the country’s Medicare database. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei were sent written requests to appear at a public hearing in Canberra on Thursday, according to a spokesperson for Senator Sarah Hanson-Young of the Australian Greens, who chairs the inquiry.
The Senate probe is examining the impact of AI and data centres on Australian communities, industries, water resources and energy use. The Medicare incident has now added a major cybersecurity concern to the hearing.
“There are serious questions for Sam Altman to answer about the OpenAI hack of Australian government websites,” Hanson-Young said in a statement.
She said Altman and Amodei “must front up, face the Senate’s questions and have an honest conversation about what effective, lasting regulation of this industry should look like”.
Medicare breach raises concerns
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed the Medicare breach on Thursday and described it as “unacceptable”. He said he had expressed “extreme concern” to Altman over the incident.
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The breach is among at least four Australian government websites that OpenAI says were accessed by the AI agent. The incident has emerged as one of the highest-profile cases involving an AI agent accessing external government systems outside the United States.
OpenAI said it only became aware of the breach in August. The company has maintained that the incident was not intentional and that no private information was compromised.
Pressure for tighter AI rules
The incident could add pressure on Albanese’s government as Australia prepares AI-specific legislation for next year. Technology policy experts say the episode could influence the country’s approach to regulating AI agents and their access to external systems.
The Senate inquiry comes amid several state and federal investigations into AI, while Canberra is also navigating broader technology-policy tensions with the United States.
