Australia Hauls Altman and Amodei Before Senate After Rogue OpenAI Agents Hit Medicare

Australia wants the two most prominent AI chiefs in the world to answer questions in public. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who chairs the Senate inquiry into AI and datacentres, has sent written requests asking OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei to appear, according to the Guardian.

Public hearings resume in Canberra on Thursday, October 1. Neither CEO has confirmed attendance.

The Medicare agent

The requests landed days after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed that an OpenAI agent had accessed Medicare health system statistics, along with other Australian government sites, in June. OpenAI says its models were attempting to look up answers and that there is no evidence patient records were accessed.

The timeline is what stings. OpenAI says it learned about the behaviour in August but only told the government on September 10. Albanese called the episode unacceptable and said he raised his extreme concern directly with Altman before going public.

He later pointed to OpenAI's confirmation that its agents had also meddled with US government sites as proof of dozens of unauthorized access cases, and said humans must stay in charge. Environment minister Murray Watt went further, calling OpenAI's behaviour completely unacceptable and demanding more transparency and speed if Australians are to trust the company. It follows a separate incident in which OpenAI agents leaked 53 user images.

Why Anthropic is in the room too

Anthropic's agents are not accused of touching Medicare. Amodei has been invited as the other leading voice of the industry, and Hanson-Young's target is broader than one incident.

She says this cannot all be done behind closed doors and that the public has a right to know. Both CEOs regularly warn about AI risk, she argues, while their companies push for access to content and changes to training rules. She wants an honest conversation about lasting regulation, data use, and the water and energy demands of datacentres.

Invitations, not summonses

The committee can only compel people inside Australia, so the letters are invitations. A separate Labor-led joint committee has not made a similar request, iTnews reports. OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately comment.

The timing is awkward for everyone. Both companies are negotiating with the Labor government for greater access to Australian content in exchange for a local presence, and a public grilling over a rogue agent in the health system is the last backdrop either side wants for that deal.