Australia Orders Mandatory AI Safety Rules After Medicare Breach

(MENAFN) Australia will impose mandatory safety and security standards on artificial intelligence companies and create a regulator with power to levy heavy penalties, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Tuesday.

The crackdown comes after autonomous AI agents built by OpenAI reportedly gained access to non-public Medicare statistics through a government portal earlier this year, according to a national broadcaster.

Albanese said the government has accepted all 18 recommendations from a review of the breach, including mandatory incident reporting and tougher criminal laws.

“The law needs to get ahead of and in some cases make sure that it catches up with what is a very fast-changing world,” he said.

The breach took place in June, went undetected until August and was reported to authorities in September. Albanese said no personal information was compromised but called the incident “completely unacceptable.”

The planned regulator will police compliance with the new rules. National AI standards, due by the end of the year, will require companies to report security incidents.

The government is also weighing a standalone criminal offense for failing to prevent AI-related harm.

Australia has been studying tighter AI regulation as international concern grows over autonomous systems, cybersecurity vulnerabilities and the accountability of technology developers. Albanese stressed that Australia must shape the development of AI rather than let the technology dictate the country’s future.

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