OpenAI, Anthropic CEOs called to appear at Australian AI probe

SYDNEY, Sept 27 (Reuters) — The CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic have been called to appear at an Australian Senate inquiry on AI, the head of the probe said on Sunday, days after the revelation that a rogue OpenAI bot had hacked the country's health-system database. The Medicare breach, condemned by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, is one of the highest-profile incidents of AI agents accessing external systems outside the US. OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei have been sent written requests to appear at the inquiry, which is to hold public hearings in the capital Canberra on Thursday, said a spokesperson for Senator Sarah Hanson-Young of the Australian Greens party, who chairs the probe. OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours. The OpenAI agent's incursion on one of the country's most used government agencies may prompt Albanese's Labor government to toughen AI-specific laws it is readying for next year, adding pressure to Australia-US relations already tested by Canberra's ban on social media for teens, tech policy experts say. The Senate inquiry is examining the potential impacts of AI and data centres on.