OpenAI, Anthropic CEOs called to appear at Australian AI probe

SYDNEY, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic have been called to appear at an Australian Senate inquiry on AI, the head of the probe said on Sunday, days after the revelation that a rogue OpenAI bot had hacked the country's health-system database.

The Medicare breach, condemned by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, is one of the highest-profile incidents of AI agents accessing external systems outside the US.

OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei have been sent written requests to appear at the inquiry, which is to hold public hearings in the capital Canberra on Thursday, said a spokesperson for Senator Sarah Hanson-Young of the Australian Greens party, who chairs the probe.

OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours.

The OpenAI agent's incursion on one of the country's most used government agencies may prompt Albanese's Labor government to toughen AI-specific laws it is readying for next year, adding pressure to Australia-US relations already tested by Canberra's ban on social media for teens, tech policy experts say.

The Senate inquiry is examining the potential impacts of AI and data centres on Australian communities, industries, water and energy. It is one of several state and federal probes into AI.

"There are serious questions for Sam Altman to answer about the OpenAI hack of Australian government websites," Hanson-Young said in a statement. Altman and Amodei "must front up, face the Senate's questions and have an honest conversation about what effective, lasting regulation of this industry should look like", she said.

Albanese, who revealed the June breach of Medicare on Thursday, called it "unacceptable", saying he had voiced "extreme concern" to Altman.

OpenAI says it only learned of the breach — one of at least four of Australian government websites — in August. It says the incident was not intentional and did not compromise any private information.