An OpenAI agent has hacked the Australian government's healthcare system, gaining unauthorised access to non-public information as well as writing files to the server.

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese announced the breach at a press conference on Thursday. OpenAI's researchers had been using an internal AI model to research spending on public healthcare, and given it access to the internet for this purpose. However, the AI "didn't accept no for an answer" when it encountered blocks, instead devising ways to circumvent such barriers to retrieve information without authorisation. 

This resulted in OpenAI's agent breaching Services Australia's Medicare statistics reporting portal on Jun. 18, accessing both public and non-public files, and even writing its own to the Australian government's server in order to do so.

"[T]his situation is obviously unacceptable," said Albanese. "I think OpenAI know that they need to have better protocols in place. And they're one of the businesses that themselves have warned of the risks which are there."

OpenAI has acknowledged the breach, a spokesperson stating that its AI models "took actions we did not intend" when searching for answers to questions about Australia.

"The information accessed included aggregate health statistics and internal file names," the spokesperson said.

Fortunately, there is no evidence that individual people's data was impacted, or that personal private health information was accessed. The Medicare statistics reporting portal is an online platform which provides users with information about Australia's universal healthcare programs. This includes statistics on immunisations, organ donation, and the government's scheme to lower the cost of prescription medication.

Source link