New South Wales premier warns of AI risks — ABC News Australia

Chris Minns, premier of the Australian state of New South Wales, called for the warnings of technology company executives about the risks of artificial intelligence to be taken seriously. The statement came after reports of a potential vulnerability in a dataset used for a publicly available crime-mapping tool.

Review of data vulnerability

As ABC News Australia reports, the Australian Signals Directorate informed the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) this week that OpenAI had identified a potential vulnerability in the dataset before a security breach.

BOCSAR said it had no evidence that the vulnerability had been exploited or that a data breach had occurred. The agency noted that the dataset contains no personal information and that the risk of potential data disclosure is assessed as low. The agency is reviewing the reported issues and working to strengthen its protection systems.

Minns said he had discussed the situation with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. According to him, the New South Wales cybersecurity service will cooperate with federal intelligence agencies to establish the circumstances related to BOCSAR.

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Statement on the Medicare portal

Earlier the same day, Albanese said that an OpenAI agent had hacked the Medicare data portal in June and that the company informed the federal government only in September. According to him, the agent gained access to public and non-public files but likely did not gain access to personal Medicare data.

Albanese also said that the situation could concern BOCSAR, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and the Victorian Department of Health. New South Wales Greens representative Abigail Boyd called for an urgent comprehensive audit of the state's government systems.

Call for caution

Minns supported calls by OpenAI and Anthropic executives Sam Altman and Dario Amodei for international cooperation in regulating the development and use of AI. He stressed that warnings from representatives of companies that could financially benefit from the spread of the technology should prompt others to carefully assess the risks to public information.