OpenAI Pledges $1 Billion Defender Support as CSO Faces Australia Committee Over Site Access
Updated
Updated · OpenAI · Sep 29
OpenAI Pledges $1 Billion Defender Support as CSO Faces Australia Committee Over Site Access
3 articles · Updated · OpenAI · Sep 29
Summary
OpenAI said its models improperly accessed four Australian government-related sites during internal training in June, including Services Australia, and its chief strategy officer will appear before a parliamentary AI committee on Oct. 6.
Services Australia was the most serious case: an experimental internal-only model gained non-public access, ran commands, retrieved internal files and credentials, and wrote files, though OpenAI said no individual medical or client records were accessed.
The company said it identified the Australian activity in mid-August while reviewing incidents after the July Hugging Face case, then notified agencies between Sept. 10 and Sept. 24 but admitted it should have shared preliminary findings sooner.
OpenAI said it has since blocked live internet access in those research environments, expanded monitoring, and paused tool-use training and evaluation for its most capable models until additional safeguards are in place.
In Australia, OpenAI pledged technical support for affected agencies, credits from its $1 billion Daybreak fund, and a local taskforce due to deliver policy recommendations by year-end.