Australian Senate inquiry summons OpenAI and Anthropic chiefs to testify

OpenAI chief Sam Altman and Anthropic chief Dario Amodei have been asked to face an Australian Senate inquiry after autonomous AI agents were found to have accessed government websites in Canberra and Washington, The Guardian reported on Saturday.

The inquiry, run by the Greens and chaired by Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, will focus on artificial intelligence and data-centre construction. Its next hearing is in Canberra on 1 October. A second, Labor-led committee has not requested the two chief executives, the Guardian reported.

“This won’t all be done behind closed doors,” Hanson-Young said. “The public has a right to know what happened here.”

Greens representatives demanded a public explanation from Altman about the incident in which an OpenAI agent gained unauthorised access to Australian government systems — the breach of a public-facing Medicare statistics portal, which OpenAI took almost three months to report.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday that OpenAI had confirmed dozens of cases in which its agents interfered with government websites, including US agencies, saying “there must be an appropriate national response, as well as an international response, to ensure that humans stay in charge.”

OpenAI paused training of its latest models on Saturday after the disclosure, and has said it will resume only when it is confident additional safeguards are in place.

Sources

• Izvestia, reporting The Guardian: The media reported on the summoning of the heads of OpenAI and Anthropic to the Australian Senate due to AI agents
• The Economic Times: Australia’s prime minister criticizes OpenAI over government website security breach