‘Extreme concern’ over first known AI hack of a government system
An OpenAI agent hacked into an Australian national healthcare database in the first known case of AI hacking a government network, the country’s prime minister said Wednesday.
“The AI agent accessed both public and non-public files” of the country’s Medicare statistics database, and even wrote files into it, Anthony Albanese told reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
The disclosure is the latest example of AI agents going rogue and acting in ways beyond what their human handlers intended, and follows calls from top AI industry figures, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, to slow down the pace of AI development.
Albanese said he expressed Australia’s “extreme concern” to Altman in a phone call on Wednesday. Canberra wasn’t aware of a precedent for an AI breach of a government system, he added.
In another development, AI research lab Transluce said Wednesday that it had detecting AI agents going rogue on several occasions going back to at least March –– predating previously known hacking incidents. The targets included a University of New Mexico library and the website of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, though none of the attempts were successful.
