OpenAI faces condemnation at parliament about AI hacking Australians’ private data

OpenAI must explain how they will stop their models from inappropriately accessing Australian data, the Labor chair of the parliament’s committee on artificial intelligence has warned, ahead of federal inquiry hearings which will grill the tech company alongside Anthropic, Microsoft and Google.

Independent senator David Pocock is also demanding answers, saying OpenAI “still have a lot they need to answer” about their AI agent accessing Services Australia data on Medicare and the company’s “appalling” tardiness in notifying the federal government about the incident.

OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, will front the hearing alongside Adam Cohen, the company’s head of economic policy, and the company’s Asia-Pacific national security lead, Peter Anstee. Labor MP chairing the committee Briskey said her starting point would be to interrogate how to balance the potential risks and rewards of AI, such as economic benefits as well as cyber security and defence applications. She said she would also raise concerns about online safety, scams, and how any benefits would be spread among all Australians.

The Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence will hold four days of hearings this week, hearing from tech companies as well as unions, employer groups, banks and industry experts. Tuesday’s hearing will include representatives from copyright and artists’ groups, to probe issues around access to data to train AI models, as well as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which warned in its submission of a “cannibalisation” of journalism and demanded AI companies be subject to the same copyright, defamation and privacy rules as news outlets.