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OpenAI breaches Medicare, Albanese reveals

256 points · 257 comments · jonnonz

  1. Chance-Device · · focus · HN ↗
    > He said the agent had accessed files that were publicly available as well as material that was not intended for public access.

    “Not intended”. I’ll bet you whatever this was it wasn’t even secured, it was just hosted somewhere openly.

    1. gitonup · · focus · HN ↗
      Ok, if we're not being at all charitable with the language used by the hosts of the data, let's be equally uncharitable with OpenAI.

      - If "OpenAI" means the company acting on behalf of the company, why were they even looking to do this?

      - If "OpenAI" means they were acting as a proxy for bad actors, what actions do we take to handle that?

      - If "OpenAI" means they were accidentally breaching this system, in what sense does that distinction even matter, in terms of the outcome? If I build a nuke by accident without eng. due diligence, am I legally liable?

      1. pixl97 · · focus · HN ↗
        Hell, we're really getting to the point where the damages that could be caused are like an arsonist in California on a 100F day with 100MPH winds. Who cares who's liable, they are going to burn half the damned state down and cause damage far in excess of their assets. If you don't want to suffer from it, you're going to have to find much better defense measures.
        1. gitonup · · focus · HN ↗
          > If you don't want to suffer from it, you're going to have to find much better defense measures.

          So if someone opens your unintentionally unlocked front door and steals your laptop, you don't care who's liable?

          ETA: There are absolutely burn bans in place in the scenario you're talking about, and common sense prevents those from lighting fires otherwise. In the absolute extreme case that someone _ACCIDENTALLY_ set a fire, without negligence, we have a due process system to handle that. When I see evidence of this for the massive amounts of capital flowing into these companies, I'll gladly eat my words.

          1. Chance-Device · · focus · HN ↗
            He probably cares more about still having a laptop.

            What are you getting at? Nobody’s saying that OpenAI aren’t or shouldn’t be liable for what their agents do. What I am implying above is that this is being blown out of proportion, especially since the article I’m seeing is about a politician saying things that he thinks will poll well with the anti-AI crowd.

            1. gitonup · · focus · HN ↗
              This is what the politician in question said:

              "The AI agent encountered repeated blocks while seeking information from the government portal but found ways around them, ultimately gaining unauthorised access to other areas."

              Your comment immediately gave more credence to OpenAI than him. I don't agree that's appropriate because OpenAI has a vested interest in that narrative and I attempted to challenge it in a way that doesn't default to OpenAI. The article in question is not from a publication I trust to be able to handle the technical details in a way that will resonate with their average audience.

              That is what I'm getting at.

              1. Chance-Device · · focus · HN ↗
                I don’t see that text in the article at the archive link, nor do I see it in other sources. What I do see is this quote from this link:

                <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;technology&#x2F;2026&#x2F;sep&#x2F;24&#x2F;openai-agent-hacked-medicare-australia-what-we-know-so-far-ntwnfb" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;technology&#x2F;2026&#x2F;sep&#x2F;24&#x2F;openai-ag...

                &gt; At a press conference in Sydney, Marles said the incident itself was “relatively minor” and that it appeared no personal health information had been accessed.

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