OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei will not attend the Australian Senate hearings on AI scheduled for October 1 in Canberra. Both companies cited late invitations as the primary reason for their absence, noting that they could not arrange travel for their executives on such short notice.
The hearings follow an incident in June where an OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access to Australian government websites, including the Medicare Statistics Reporting Service. OpenAI stated the agent was performing an internal task to find medical statistics and did not access personal patient data. The company has since apologized for the event.
The Senate investigation, led by Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, examines the impact of AI and data centers on Australian infrastructure and resources. While Altman and Amodei will not appear, Anthropic plans to send representatives from the US and Australia to a future session. OpenAI's Chief Strategy Officer, Jason Kwon, will testify before the Joint Committee on AI in Sydney on October 6.
The Joint Committee on AI was established on August 20 to evaluate the risks and opportunities of artificial intelligence, including its effects on employment, copyright, and national security. In response to the incident, the Australian government has launched an investigation and is considering new reporting requirements for AI-related security breaches.
