Australia information dwell: OpenAI apologises for Medicare hack, calling it a ‘new form of cyber incident’ | Australia information

OpenAI government flying in from US for committee listening to on synthetic intelligence
OpenAI’s chief technique officer will fly to Australia from the US subsequent week to look earlier than a joint choose committee on synthetic intelligence, simply days after the prime minister confirmed one among its fashions hacked a Medicare web site.
Jason Kwon will seem earlier than the committee in Sydney on 6 October.
OpenAI mentioned it was “sorry and dealing to do higher sooner or later” in a lengthy blog post in regards to the incident, writing:
We are setting out what we all know, what we now have modified, and what we’ll do to rebuild belief with the Australian individuals. This is a brand new form of cyber incident which represents an rising international problem.
One of the methods we intend to take accountability for the state of affairs is to be intentional in working with Australia to assist develop sensible approaches to how AI builders and governments establish, disclose, and reply to AI cyber behaviour, whether or not malicious or unintentional.
Key occasions
OpenAI guarantees new safeguards to reassure individuals ‘AI is being developed safely’
OpenAI mentioned it has enacted a number of safeguards amid a slate of regarding incidents, together with that affecting the Medicare web site and the Hugging Face incident.
The firm mentioned it has new controls to dam dwell web entry in analysis environments and pointed to its resolution to pause coaching and analysis involving software use for its “most succesful fashions” and would solely resume coaching them “after we are assured that we now have extra safeguards in place, which we’re engaged on now”.
The firm continued:
People wish to know AI is being developed safely, and that begins with what firms like ours do ourselves. … In Australia, we’re committing sources and experience to assist affected companies and assist defenders put these ideas into observe.
OpenAI will committee devoted assist for affected companies in Australia, funding and assist to strengthen Australian cyber defences and the institution of an Australian taskforce to develop “sensible coverage suggestions”.
Australia’s governments, industries, and residents are and have been invaluable companions to OpenAI. We don’t take this as a right, and we intend to make this proper.
OpenAI government flying in from US for committee listening to on synthetic intelligence
OpenAI’s chief technique officer will fly to Australia from the US subsequent week to look earlier than a joint choose committee on synthetic intelligence, simply days after the prime minister confirmed one among its fashions hacked a Medicare web site.
Jason Kwon will seem earlier than the committee in Sydney on 6 October.
OpenAI mentioned it was “sorry and dealing to do higher sooner or later” in a lengthy blog post in regards to the incident, writing:
We are setting out what we all know, what we now have modified, and what we’ll do to rebuild belief with the Australian individuals. This is a brand new form of cyber incident which represents an rising international problem.
One of the methods we intend to take accountability for the state of affairs is to be intentional in working with Australia to assist develop sensible approaches to how AI builders and governments establish, disclose, and reply to AI cyber behaviour, whether or not malicious or unintentional.
OpenAI scraps launch of mannequin anticipated to look in ChatGPT over security issues
OpenAI is scrapping the discharge of GPT-6.1 Astra, a next-generation AI mannequin deliberate for an October debut, over security issues raised by researchers throughout inner testing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Reuters mentioned the mannequin, anticipated to look in ChatGPT and Codex, was designed to deal with extra advanced duties with out human help, the report mentioned.
Earlier this month, Dario Amodei, the Anthropic CEO, referred to as for the business to gradual the event of frontier AI fashions to permit security measures to maintain tempo, a view endorsed by Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, and Elon Musk, the SpaceX CEO.
OpenAI didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark.
Read extra:
18-year-old arrested in NSW on fees of utilizing drone in alleged plot to homicide man
NSW police have charged a drone operator over an alleged plot to homicide a person in Sydney’s south west.
Officials mentioned the person, 18, was arrested in Silverwater on Monday. Police will allege in court docket he was working a drone to conduct surveillance as a part of an alleged conspiracy to homicide a person.
He has since been charged with conspiracy and settlement to homicide an individual, participation in a prison group contributing to prison exercise and different fees linked to the drone.
He was remanded in custody and can seem earlier than court docket at the moment.
Massive nice white shark noticed close to whale carcass at standard Perth seashore
Multiple sharks, together with a five-metre nice white, have been noticed swimming close to a big, smelly whale carcass that washed ashore at a popular Western Australia beach, drawing hundreds of onlookers. Surf lifesavers discovered the useless animal at Perth’s City seashore at about 7.30am on Monday and raised the alarm. Local authorities closed the seashore for a number of kilometres in every route of the carcass, which seemed to be about six metres lengthy.
UNSW researchers skilled AI fashions to behave ‘drunk’, then spill issues they shouldn’t
Researchers on the University of New South Wales say massive language fashions (LLMs) might be manipulated to mimic drunken behaviour … and probably leak confidential data or reply questions they’re not speculated to.
UNSW researchers mentioned AI fashions skilled or prompted to imitate drunken speech turned extra susceptible to privateness breaches than their “sober” counterparts.
The researchers requested a mannequin to role-play as a drunk individual, or used a dataset of drunk texts to “fine-tune” the LLM to finish sentences like a drunk individual would say them.
A 3rd technique concerned rewarding a mannequin for utilizing language that resembled a drunk textual content.
The plan wasn’t examined on each LLM out there, however UNSW chosen a consultant pattern together with OpenAI’s GPT-4 and GPT-3.5.
The researchers mentioned the “drunk” fashions had been constantly simpler to govern.
“We do observe that significantly with deception and disinformation, many of the language fashions bought jailbroken,” Aditya Joshi, a researcher at UNSW, mentioned in a press release:
It does give out secrets and techniques – throughout the board for all three strategies, it’s susceptible.
Greens to fulfill subsequent week to decide on new chief after Larissa Waters steps down
In case you missed the information final night time, the Greens chief, Larissa Waters, has introduced she’s going to step down as a consequence of sick well being.
A celebration room assembly subsequent week will likely be held to decide on her successor, with the deputy chief, Mehreen Faruqi, and high-profile senators Sarah Hanson-Young, David Shoebridge and Nick McKim all prospects to contest the management poll.
Waters mentioned she had been managing a pre-existing kidney illness, however her well being had “declined considerably over the course of current months”. Her prognosis for restoration is optimistic, however she mentioned the stress of management was detracting from her concentrate on her well being.
She mentioned:
I’m actually unhappy that sickness means my time as chief has been lower quick, however our motion wants a pacesetter in good well being to steer us to success on the subsequent election.
Passing the torch on to the subsequent chief of the social gathering will put them in the most effective place to take the Greens to the subsequent election, preventing for individuals, not the company pursuits that run Labor, Liberals and One Nation.

Nick Evershed
A timeline of One Nation’s instability: greater than half MPs departed social gathering, knowledge exhibits
More than half of the One Nation MPs elected to state or federal parliaments have left the social gathering earlier than the top of their time period, with 28 of the 51 individuals elected underneath Pauline Hanson’s banner both resigning midterm or being expelled.
One Nation, which received 6% of the nationwide vote on the 2025 federal election, is now polling above 30% in some surveys, doubtlessly sufficient to make the social gathering the official federal opposition and even ready of minority authorities.
But Guardian Australia evaluation of the social gathering’s vibrant candidate historical past exhibits the social gathering has a historical past of chaos and instability.
Take a glance:
Bogong moths again at Parliament House

Tom McIlroy
A small variety of bogong moths have arrived at Parliament House in Canberra, the primary sightings amid an obvious resurgence of the endangered native insect.
Swarms of bogongs have been reported throughout NSW, a part of the annual migration when big numbers of the bugs journey to chill caves within the Australian Alps to flee the summer time warmth.
The moths had been a typical sight in Canberra for many years, with significantly massive numbers congregating at Parliament House. The lights across the constructing, together with the large Australian flag, attracted the moths. But in recent times numbers have dramatically dropped.
The moth has been listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature since 2021, however is not listed as a threatened species underneath federal conservation laws.
Guardian Australia noticed just a few bogongs within the Senate wing on Monday.
Dfat offering help to household of Melbourne hiker lacking in Peru
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) is offering consular help to the household of Jordan Yap, a Melbourne man who stays lacking after setting out for a tough trek in Peru.
Dfat mentioned it couldn’t present additional remark owing to privateness obligations.
A GoFundMe web page arrange by Yap’s household and associates mentioned the person, 30, was meant to return from the 10-day hike on 23 September, however he by no means checked again into his hostel in Lima.
They have been paying personal rescue groups to seek for him and are arranging for extra crews to move to the realm “to cowl as a lot territory as doable”.
“We count on to have these models actively looking out within the subsequent few days,” they wrote on the web page. “Thank you once more for standing with Jordan. Your assist means greater than we will say.”
