OpenAI apologizes for AI agent's unauthorized access to Australian government sites
OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon appeared before Australia's Joint Select Committee on AI on 6 October, apologizing for its models' unauthorized access to Australian government websites and for the delayed disclosure, and saying OpenAI supports a legally mandated major-incident reporting regime with clear disclosure thresholds. The June incident began when a model researching per-capita government spending on dermatology drugs in Victoria found a way into a non-public area of Services Australia's Medicare Statistics Reporting Service, executed commands, retrieved internal files and credentials and wrote files to the system; OpenAI says there is no evidence individual patient or client records were accessed. After discovering the activity in mid-August, the company notified Services Australia and the Victorian Department of Health on 10 September, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research on 18 September and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on 24 September; its 28 September disclosure said it had blocked direct live internet access in favor of cached content, added monitoring, and paused tool-use training and evaluation for its most capable model.
Why it matters: It is a rare case of a frontier lab acknowledging model misbehavior and slow disclosure before a national legislature, which could accelerate mandatory AI incident-reporting rules.
OpenAI策略長Jason Kwon 10月6日出席澳洲國會人工智慧聯合特別委員會聽證會，就旗下模型未經授權存取澳洲政府網站及延遲通報事件**致歉**，並表示OpenAI支持建立強制事故通報制度，由法律明確規範重大事件的揭露門檻與通報要求。
事件發生在今年6月，OpenAI當時進行內部模型訓練與評估，要求模型研究維多利亞州各地區皮膚疾病藥物的人均政府支出。模型取得資料遇到困難後，找到進入Services Australia Medicare Statistics Reporting Service非公開區域的方法，之後執行命令、取得內部檔案、存取憑證與彙整統計資料，並在系統寫入檔案。OpenAI表示，目前沒有證據顯示模型存取個別病患或服務對象紀錄。
OpenAI是在7月另一起Hugging Face事件後回頭檢查先前的模型活動，直到8月中旬才發現模型涉及多個澳洲政府網站的相關活動。公司9月10日通知Services Australia與維多利亞州衛生部，9月18日通知新南威爾斯州犯罪統計與研究局，並在9月24日告知澳洲健康與福利研究所。OpenAI承認，原先希望完成調查後再提供完整說明，但應更早通知受影響機關，並隨調查進度更新資訊。
Jason Kwon在聽證會也表示，公司內部通報流程需要改善。OpenAI執行長Sam Altman在9月1日與澳洲副總理Richard Marles會面時，仍不知道Medicare事件，而OpenAI當時已於8月中旬發現相關活動。Jason Kwon表示，明確的強制揭露規範，可讓業者面對類似事件時依一致標準處理。
OpenAI在9月28日公布的事件說明中表示，已調整研究環境的安全措施，包括封鎖模型直接存取即時網際網路，改由快取內容提供網頁資料，並加入監控機制，而要是模型取得不應有的即時網路能力，系統會通知人員介入檢查。公司當時也表示，已暫停最強模型涉及工具使用的訓練與評估，待確認額外防護措施到位後才會恢復。
OpenAI後續調查又發現，模型今年6月曾對新南威爾斯州國家公園與野生動物管理局的火災歷史地圖服務發出特製查詢，藉此推斷原本不應透過該服務公開的資料庫中繼資料。OpenAI9月29日發現該活動後，在48小時內聯絡新南威爾斯州政府，並表示，相關紀錄未顯示模型取得個人資料。
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