OpenAI contrite at Australian inquiry on breaches but avoids full public glare with Altman’s absence

SYDNEY – At a parliamentary hearing room in Sydney on Oct 6, OpenAI’s Chief Strategy Officer wasted no time in delivering the message he had flown from the United States to give to Australia’s politicians – and its public.

“I want to begin with an apology,” Jason Kwon told the hearing.

Kwon was appearing at a parliamentary inquiry on artificial intelligence less than two weeks after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed AI agents from the technology giant had breached several Australian government websites in June.

In a message aimed not just at an Australian audience but at a global public that is keen to embrace the opportunities of AI but is wary of the risks, Mr Kwon said: “We should have handled our responsibilities better. We are sorry. We know that we have work to do to rebuild trust with the Australian people.”

The hearing, held in a nondescript room in the New South Wales (NSW) Parliament building in the centre of Sydney, was the first opportunity for OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, to publicly demonstrate its contrition over breaches by an unreleased AI model of Australian government websites, including Medicare, the national health insurance system. OpenAI learnt in August that its model accessed non-public Medicare statistics on June 18, but did not notify the government until Sept 10, when it emailed a publicly available address.

Albanese, who earlier this year announced the establishment of an AI office to coordinate oversight and regulation of technological developments, had said he was deeply disappointed at OpenAi’s delay in alerting the government.

Kwon told the hearing that the firm had introduced new measures to prevent a repeat of the incident, including immediately notifying relevant parties of breaches and providing regular updates. In addition, he said, the firm is reviewing testing by its agents going back to November 2025 to identify other breaches and will conduct additional monitoring during the training of new models.

“Our response here was not good enough,” he said. “We have learned our lesson that it is better to inform, even with partial information.”

Australia’s Labor-led government, which is keen to engage with American AI giants and encourage them to invest in research and development in Australia, has launched a taskforce to investigate the breaches and is considering whether further regulations or oversight of the sector is needed.

OpenAI said the breach occurred during evaluation of the model and that no personal health records or sensitive data were accessed as the model searched for answers. But the unauthorised access of a foreign government’s websites has dominated headlines in Australia – where Medicare is a prized and trusted institution – and fuelled concerns about the risks of AI. A JWS Research survey in August, obtained by Politico, found that 44 per cent of Australians view AI as a risk and just 17 per cent view it as an opportunity, while 28 per cent are conflicted and 10 per cent are unsure.

OpenAI head Sam Altman declined to appear at the hearing, instead sending Kwon, whose seniority signalled that OpenAi was serious about repairing ties with the Australian Government. But Kwon lacked the profile of Altman, whose appearance would have attracted greater coverage and helped the firm to try to persuade the public that it can responsibly develop and test its technology in Australia.

OpenAI said it learned of the breach in Australia while reviewing training incidents, following revelations that its agents had hacked into Hugging Face, a US technology firm.

Kwon said OpenAI would support tighter safety regulations by Australia and other countries, such as mandatory reporting of breaches. He said the breach in Australia was accidental and was “not super sophisticated” but efforts to ensure the safety of the emerging technology would require “a collective effort of like-minded countries as well as organisations”.

“The technology is powerful, and we want to ensure that lawmakers and policymakers and democratic societies have a say in how this technology develops,” he said.

The US AI giant Anthropic, which makes Claude, also appeared before the inquiry. The firm’s Head of Safeguards, Dave Orr, said it had not uncovered any unauthorised access of Australian government websites. But, in an apparent dig at its rival, he said the firm would have notified the Government of any breaches “within a matter of days or sooner”.

Ahead of his testimony, Kwon made a brief public appearance in front of the waiting media, delivering a statement and taking no questions.

“I’m sorry for what happened,” he said.

Towards the end of his testimony, Kwon was asked by an MP from the Opposition Liberal-National Coalition, Andrew Hastie, to give a 60-second “elevator pitch” to persuade Australian parents and workers about the benefits of AI and the merits of Australia seeking to work with AI giants.

Kwon spoke about the role AI is playing in driving scientific breakthroughs and addressing climate change. Despite the run of bad news in recent weeks, he said the technology “does have the potential to deliver great benefits to everyday people”.

This is the message OpenAI, Anthropic and others hope to deliver in Australia to gain a social licence for their expanding footprint, including data centres and research labs.

But until these firms can ensure their technology is secure and that they can handle breaches responsibly and reliably, all the public may hear is a succession of apologies.