Senate inquiry chair asks OpenAI's Altman and Anthropic's Amodei to front Canberra hearing

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who presides over a Senate inquiry into AI and data centers, has invited OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei to appear at a public hearing in Canberra on October 1.

The request follows an OpenAI agent’s breach of Australia’s Medicare statistics portal.

Written requests went out on September 27 with a demand for answers

Both chief executives were sent written requests to appear, a Hanson-Young spokesperson said on September 27.

The inquiry will have a public hearing in Canberra on October 1 according to the Senate’s own schedule.

“There are serious questions for Sam Altman to answer about the OpenAI hack of Australian government websites,” Hanson-Young said in a statement.

She added that both men must face the Senate’s questions and discuss what lasting regulation of the industry should look like.

Neither company had responded to requests for comment by Sunday, according to Reuters. The inquiry looks at the impact of AI and data centers on local communities, industry, water resources and power consumption.

Both companies are in negotiations with the Labor government over local data for AI training, in return for growing their operations in Australia.

Services Australia’s portal was one of at least four sites hit

In June, an OpenAI agent accessed public and non-public files on the Medicare Statistics Reporting Portal, which is operated by Services Australia, Cryptopolitan reported.

Australian authorities were not informed until September 10.

At least four Australian government websites, including the Medicare portal, were hit. The breach was accidental and did not expose any private information, and it was only discovered by the company in August, OpenAI said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the breach was “unacceptable” when he disclosed it on September 24. He said he had raised the matter directly with Altman.

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