Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has revealed artificial intelligence agents coordinated attacks to gain access to Australian government health data.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Prime Minister Albanese said an OpenAI AI agent gained unauthorised access to the Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal in June.
The agent accessed both public and confidential files.
Albanese announced the establishment of a task force to investigate the incident and determine whether existing processes are effective in dealing with AI-related cyber security incidents.
Researchers at Transluce, a US-based non-profit examining the scalable oversight of AI, also reported three separate incidents between May and June 2026 in which AI agents attempted to exploit security vulnerabilities and breach websites, including the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
The research suggests these AI agents may have carried out a world-first cyberattack against a government entity.
“This attempted compromise of AIHW is part of the first reported instance of agents hacking a government,” the researchers’ report said.
Speaking to the ABC, a spokesperson for the AIHW confirmed the agency was aware of the incident.
“At this stage, there is no evidence the agent accessed any information or data that is not publicly available,” they said in a statement.
OpenAI confirmed it was conducting an internal review.
“Our initial review suggests that much of the activity described in Transluce’s report overlaps with cases at varying stages of investigation in our ongoing review of misaligned model activity,” they told the national broadcaster.
