Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has described as very serious the revelation last week that an OpenAI agent hacked into Australian government websites. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
Speaking to News 24, Marles said: "The fact that we've got an artificial intelligence agent gaining unauthorised access to an Australian government website, that of itself is very serious. There's no hiding that."
He noted that this is the first time this has happened in the context of Australia. "This is the first time this has happened in the context of Australia, and so we're not shying away from that. In fact, the information that it obtained was minor in its nature, in as much as that information we've now made public anyway, it wasn't anyone's personal data," Marles said.
"But in a sense, the seriousness doesn't lie in the information that was obtained. It was the fact that we've got an unintended action of an AI agent gaining unauthorised access into an Australian government website," he added.
Marles met with OpenAI boss Sam Altman earlier this month, but the company did not disclose that it knew the agent had breached Australian government systems.
Earlier, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the announcement of the Medicare breach was made "purely in national interest". The statement was made on the sidelines of the United Nations meeting.
The news comes amid other developments in Australian politics, including Richard Marles, Jane Hume, the Liberal Coalition, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, and NTWNfb issues.