An artificial intelligence giant whose agent went rogue and hacked an Australian government website has publicly apologised and committed to setting up a task force in an attempt to control its technology.
An OpenAI agent breached a Medicare statistics portal during a training exercise in June, but the company did not inform the government until early September.
The US company will set up an Australian-based task force, using domestic expertise to try and ward off the autonomous strength of AI.
The government has established its own rapid response task force to investigate the breach and has begun moving sensitive Medicare data to new platforms.
It is also expected to introduce mandatory reporting procedures for rogue AI agents, which would involve relevant government departments and the Australian Signals Directorate.
When OpenAI finally informed the government about the breach, it did so via a generic email to a Services Australia account that was not monitored 24 hours.
“We should have handled our response better,” a statement from OpenAI, announcing the task force, said on Tuesday.
“We are sorry and working to do better in the future.”
The company had been “constructive and open”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, but balancing the dangers of AI was a global problem.
“We see this as an opportunity, but we want to seize the benefit whilst mitigating the risks,” he told reporters in Adelaide.
The breach has raised serious concerns about the ability of AI agents to act on their own to compromise data.
The government will pursue criminal charges if possible; however, it is yet to determine who is legally responsible for the breach.
Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said it was a “significant issue” and one of the first breaches of its kind in the world.
OpenAI will fund government work through credits from a $1 billion fund which subsidises work on essential services protection, and has so far mainly been used in the US.
The company’s chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, will appear at a government committee on AI in early October.
“As AI systems broadly grow more capable, we also see a narrowing window to help organisations find and fix weaknesses. This takes collective action working with defenders worldwide,” the statement said.
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