Australian inquiry calls for independent safety checks of AI companies

CANBERRA: A parliamentary inquiry has recommended that the Australian government subject AI companies to independent safety checks following a breach of the nation's healthcare system by an OpenAI agent.

The bipartisan committee established by the federal parliament in August wrote on Monday night to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to present its early advice, recommending that the government should embed independent experts within leading AI companies to report safety findings and incidents.

The letter said that June's OpenAI breach of a web portal linked to the healthcare system, which was not disclosed until September, demonstrated the need for appropriate and robust safeguards to protect Australian data.

It said that security agencies should receive early access to new models as a condition of allowing companies to train them in Australia and that the government should immediately review protections used across its data repositories.

Addressing the inquiry earlier in October, OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon reiterated the company's apology for the June incident and said it has imposed additional monitoring allowing staff to stop training if a model accesses the internet in a way it is not supposed to.

Kwon said that OpenAI would support Australia imposing a mandatory reporting framework for similar incidents.

In addition to the security reforms, the inquiry also recommended that the government review copyright settings, noting that the work of Australian content is being used to train AI models overseas without compensation for creators.

"Australian copyright holders need to have control over how their material is used, and of course be compensated for that," Senator Jonno Duniam, co‑chair of the inquiry from the opposition Liberal Party, told reporters at Parliament House on Tuesday.

The committee said that the government should establish an ongoing parliamentary inquiry to monitor AI and conduct rapid reviews of new regulation when required.

By RSS/Xinhua