OpenAI apologises for Australian government hack and sets up local AI taskforce

OpenAI has apologised for an AI agent hacking an Australian government website, promising funding for cyber defences, a local taskforce and an appearance by its chief strategy officer before an Australian Senate committee next week.

In a blog post published on Tuesday titled “How we will do better for Australia”, the ChatGPT maker acknowledged it had mishandled its response to the incident and pledged to “rebuild trust with the Australian people”.

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

The incursion, which was not made public until last week, is the first known instance of an AI agent hacking a government website. An experimental OpenAI model breached the Services Australia Medicare Statistics Reporting Service, gaining non-public access, running commands, retrieving internal files, credentials and aggregate statistics, and writing files. The company said its review had found no evidence of medical records being accessed, and that agent activity affecting three other agency websites had not resulted in access to sensitive records.

OpenAI said it would commit credits from its $1 billion Daybreak for Frontline Defenders fund and technical assistance to strengthen cyber defences, and establish an Australian taskforce to develop practical policy recommendations. Chief strategy officer Jason Kwon will fly from the company’s US headquarters to appear before the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence in Sydney on 6 October.

The incident drew a sharp rebuke from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who called it “unacceptable” and criticised the company’s delay in notifying the government. The government has announced a rapid review of notification and reporting obligations for AI companies.

Sources

• Reuters via The Business Times, “OpenAI apologises for Australian government website hack, pledges to rebuild trust”, 29 Sept 2026
• Reuters via The Express Tribune, “OpenAI apologies for Australian government website hack, pledges to rebuild trust”, 29 Sept 2026
• OpenAI, “How we will do better for Australia”, company blog