The revelation that an AI agent turned rogue and breached a firewall to get at Medicare statistics has strongly reinforced Anthony Albanese's case for tough guardrails on this transformative technology.
The timing of the disclosure is fortuitous in a political sense, although the opposition's suggestion the announcement was delayed for political purposes doesn't hold water.
The government says ministers only learned late last week of the breach.
During the United Nations' leaders week in New York, the prime minister has been heavily focused on AI — in concert with other like-minded countries stressing action is imperative.
In a training exercise, an OpenAI agent broke loose, refusing to be deterred when it couldn't get its way with the Services Australia Medicare statistics portal.
The AI agent, tasked to undertake research on medicine spending, interacted with four sites: the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, the Victorian Department of Health, and the Services Australia Medicare portal.
When it found itself frustrated by the Services Australia site, it successfully sought a way to outsmart the obstacle.
As Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles described it, the data "was behind a fence — the AI agent climbed the fence".
The incident happened on June 18; OpenAI learned of it on August 11. On September 10, it emailed the Services Australia "Public Interest Disclosures" address, described as a "public mailbox".
On September 15, Services Australia told the Australian Signals Directorate. Minister for Government Services Katy Gallagher was told "around September 17".
Like AI, ministerial discretion needs strict "guardrails".