Jo Briskey, chair of Australia's Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, has called for OpenAI to explain how it will prevent its models from improperly accessing private Australian data following recent incidents involving sensitive information like Medicare records. The committee, which includes independent senator David Pocock, plans to question OpenAI representatives this week alongside those from other tech companies about the security and ethical concerns raised by AI technologies. Briskey emphasized her focus on balancing potential benefits of AI with risk management strategies, particularly in areas like cyber security and online safety.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-05,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
The Labor chair of the parliament's committee on artificial intelligence has warned that OpenAI must explain how they plan to prevent their models from inappropriately accessing Australian citizens' private data. This comes ahead of federal inquiry hearings scheduled for this week, where representatives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google will be questioned about AI model access to sensitive information. Independent senator David Pocock is also seeking answers regarding the misuse of Services Australia data on Medicare by an OpenAI agent and the company's delay in notifying the government about the incident. The hearings, spanning four days, will address various concerns from tech companies, unions, employer groups, banks, and industry experts. On Tuesday, copyright and artists' groups will probe issues related to accessing data for AI training, along with representatives from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which has expressed concern over a potential "cannibalisation" of journalism and is calling for stricter regulations on AI companies regarding copyright, defamation, and privacy rules.
Written for “Openai Ai Privacy Concerns” on 2026-10-05,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
OpenAI must explain how they will stop their models from inappropriately accessing Australian data, the Labor chair of the parliament’s committee on artificial intelligence has warned, ahead of federal inquiry hearings which will grill the tech company alongside Anthropic, Microsoft and Google.
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which → explain → Anthropic
Independent senator David Pocock is also demanding answers, saying OpenAI “still have a lot they need to answer” about their AI agent accessing Services Australia data on Medicare and the company’s “appalling” tardiness in notifying the federal government about the incident.
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agent → demand → incident
The Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence will hold four days of hearings this week, hearing from tech companies as well as unions, employer groups, banks and industry experts.
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Committee → hold → companies
Tuesday’s hearing will include representatives from copyright and artists’ groups, to probe issues around access to data to train AI models, as well as the Australian Broadcasting Corportation, which warned in its submission of a “cannibalisation” of journalism and demanded AI companies be subject to the same copyright, defamation and privacy rules as news outlets.
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companies → include → outlets
OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, will front the hearing alongside Adam Cohen, the company’s head of economic policy, and Asia-Pacific national security lead, Peter Anstee.
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officer → front → policy
OpenAI last week apologised for the Services Australia incident and the manner in which it informed the government, saying it was “working to do better”.
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it → apologise → government
But the Labor MP chairing the committee, Jo Briskey, said the company still had questions to answer.
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company → chair → questions
“We have heard what happened, we understand what has occurred, and there’s some pretty problematic issues around not only the fact that these AI agents did access non-public data, but the reality was also that they took far too long to to notify us,” she said.
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she → hear → us
“We’ve seen OpenAI make its public apology to Australians.
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OpenAI → see → Australians
That’s important …
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That → ’ → ?
How do they assure Australians that they that this won’t happen again?
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this → assure → Australians
And that’s a difficult question.”
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that → ’ → ?
Briskey said her starting point would be to interrogate how to balance the potential risks and rewards of AI, such as economic benefits as well as cyber security and defence applications.
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point → say → benefits
She said she would also raise concerns about online safety, scams, and how any benefits would be spread among all Australians.
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benefits → say → Australians
“I don’t think we get the benefit unless we can assure and mitigate against the risks,” she said.
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she → think → risks
Pocock, who is also on the committee, also plans to seek more answers from OpenAI about the Services Australia incident.
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who → plan → incident
“You’ve got a bunch of companies that are essentially self-regulating with Donald Trump.
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that → get → Trump
I don’t think many people would trust Sam Altman and OpenAI …
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people → think → Altman
This is supposedly a company the Australian government wants to welcome with open arms and do deals with,” he said.
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he → want → deals
“The Medicare hack stuff will be pretty well looked at through the committee process.
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stuff → look → process
Altman, in an interview with Politico published on Monday, said OpenAI “believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency.”
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things → publish → agency
Pocock has raised alarm about the potential impacts on artists, creatives and copyrighted material and said he was still to be convinced about the technology.
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he → raise → technology
Nobody has been able to answer that,” he said.
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he → answer → that
“[The government] is chasing this GDP sugar hit, but we haven’t hit the big part of the datacentre buildout yet, and we’re already [seeing] inflation going up.
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inflation → chase → buildout
They want to raise GDP, but after the buildout phase, how do we get a return?
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we → want → return
Looking at how much tax big tech companies pay, it’s not much, and I don’t see how it’ll change.”
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it → look → tax
Pocock is keen to interrogate the government plans to address copyright issues.
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Pocock → interrogate → issues
Anthropic, in its submission, suggested a form of “opt-out” model where rightsholders could request their data not be scraped; an idea SBS, in its submission, claimed was “routinely ignored or bypassed”.
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SBS → suggest → submission
Pocock said it was “hard to cop this industry saying it’s too hard to deal with rightsholders when they’re heading for multi-trillion-dollar valuations”, and said the government should “force them [AI companies] to negotiate deals.”
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government → say → deals
The Aporia
