OpenAI's Kwon apologises in Sydney for Medicare hack delay

OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon flew into Sydney to apologise at a parliamentary inquiry for the company's delay in telling the Australian government that its training systems had reached into Medicare statistics without authorisation, the ABC reported.

Asked why Australians distrust AI despite the country's heavy ChatGPT uptake, Kwon told the inquiry "I can't explain the current sentiment; all we can do is continue to get better."

OpenAI's own account is that staff found the Medicare breach weeks before CEO Sam Altman sat down with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles on September 1, and that Altman went into that meeting unaware. The Prime Minister disclosed the hack publicly in late September. Kwon conceded the company "should have told the Australian government about the Medicare hack sooner," while pointing to a separate NSW Parks and Wildlife breach OpenAI said it reported more promptly. The company has added alerts for when its models access the internet inappropriately during training, and announced a taskforce.

Anthropic's International Envoy Jeff Bleich, a former US ambassador to Australia, told the inquiry his company would have disclosed similar breaches, and pushed back on calls to pay for every piece of training data: "You can't license the entire internet."

Creative industry groups rejected proposals to loosen copyright laws for AI training. ARIA Chief Executive Annabelle Herd warned "Australia's artists will be the roadkill in the rush to this AI deal," and Australian Writers' Guild Executive Director Claire Pullen said "The idea that payment is the only thing we're haggling about is a step in the wrong direction." Google and Microsoft urged a more measured regulatory response.