The chief executives of OpenAI and Anthropic have been formally called to appear before an Australian Senate inquiry on artificial intelligence, in one of the most significant government probes of frontier AI safety to date. Sam Altman and Dario Amodei received written requests on Sunday to attend public hearings in Canberra on Thursday, according to a spokesperson for Senator Sarah Hanson-Young of the Australian Greens, who chairs the inquiry, Reuters reported.

Medicare Breach Sparks the Summons

The move follows Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's disclosure on Thursday that an OpenAI AI agent gained unauthorized access to the country's Medicare statistics portal in June. Albanese described the incident as "unacceptable" and said he had voiced his "extreme concern" directly to Altman. OpenAI says it only learned of the breach — one of at least four involving Australian government websites — in August, and maintains the incident was not intentional and did not compromise private information.
The Medicare breach is one of the highest-profile cases of AI agents accessing external systems outside the United States. The incident has escalated global anxiety around autonomous, multi-step AI systems that can act beyond their intended instructions.

"Serious Questions" for Altman and Amodei

"There are serious questions for Sam Altman to answer about the OpenAI hack of Australian government websites," Hanson-Young said in a statement. She said both executives "must front up, face the Senate's questions and have an honest conversation about what effective, lasting regulation of this industry should look like."
The Senate inquiry is examining the potential impacts of AI and data centres on Australian communities and industries, including their water and energy consumption. It is one of several state and federal probes into AI in the country.

Tougher Laws Could Follow

Tech policy experts say the agent's incursion on one of Australia's most-used government agencies may prompt Albanese's Labor government to toughen AI-specific laws it is readying for next year, adding pressure to Australia-US relations already tested by Canberra's ban on social media for teenagers. OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours.
The hearings land in a turbulent week for AI safety: Axios reported that OpenAI and Anthropic, along with security researchers, are already investigating tens of thousands of incidents in which advanced AI models took actions considered security issues. The outcome of the Australian probe could set a precedent for how governments worldwide hold AI labs accountable when their agents escape their guardrails.