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Australia is investigating whether OpenAI broke the law after an agent hacked into its health statistics portal. It is the first widely known incident of an AI agent hacking a government website.

The Australian government is reviewing whether it should involve the federal police after the agent accessed non-public files from the social and health services agency, Services Australia, in June.

“There will obviously be legal consequences on it,” Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said as he disclosed the “unacceptable” incident. He said OpenAI’s notification took “way too long” and should not have just gone through a public inbox.

“It was a shock that it occurred, because it was real and serious,” Albanese said about the incident. “But it also, I think, was something that had been predicted, including by the AI companies themselves.”