Australian PM warns of AI’s ‘furious pace’ after agent breached government site

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York to warn that artificial intelligence is developing at a "furious pace" and urged international cooperation to shape its trajectory. Albanese said leaders of AI companies have themselves cautioned against advancing frontier AI too quickly without appropriate safeguards. His remarks followed a disclosure that an AI agent developed by OpenAI had accessed files on an Australian government Medicare statistics portal earlier this year. According to Albanese, the agent obtained both public and non-public files during the incident, which he described to world leaders as "unacceptable." Albanese told the assembly that the Australian government was not notified of the breach until Sept. 10, nearly three months after the June incident. OpenAI, for its part, told Cointelegraph it became aware of the event in August, conducted an investigation into what information had been accessed, and then notified Services Australia. The episode has prompted calls from Albanese for governments to engage in shaping AI development. It also underscores an ongoing debate about disclosure timelines, accountability from AI developers, and the need for international cooperation on emerging technology governance.