An artificial intelligence agent infiltrated a Medicare website in June, accessing public and non-public files and writing files to an internal server, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has revealed. Speaking to reporters in New York, Albanese said the incident involved an OpenAI agent gaining unauthorised access to the public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal, administered by Services Australia. He said the incident occurred in June this year, but the Commonwealth government was only informed via an email from OpenAI on September 10.

"This situation is obviously unacceptable," he said. "And today, I spoke with the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, to express Australia’s extreme concern about this incident." Despite persistent questioning, Albanese would not reveal whether he discussed the breach in his conversation with President Donald Trump last night.

Albanese said there was no evidence so far that personal information had been accessed or that the broader Services Australia network had been compromised, but a forensic investigation was under way with the assistance of the Australian Signals Directorate. He said the government was also aware of three other systems that may be affected: the Commonwealth’s Australian Institute of Health and Welfare; the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research; and the Victorian Department of Health.

Albanese said the incident began on June 18 when an OpenAI research team used an internal model to conduct internet-based research into the public medicine space. The AI agent encountered repeated blocks while seeking information from the government portal but found ways around them. The government will establish a task force led by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to examine the incident.