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Australian lawmakers have asked the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic to appear at a Senate inquiry into artificial intelligence. The requests, announced Sunday, follow reports that an OpenAI agent accessed Australia’s Medicare portal in June.
The request for Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to appear before the Australian Senate follows a U.S. appeals court ruling on Friday that upheld the Pentagon’s designation of his company as a supply chain risk.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Amodei have received written requests to appear at a public hearing in Canberra on Thursday. Senator Sarah Hanson-Young chairs the inquiry, which is examining AI and data centres, including safety, data transparency, and water and energy use.
Hanson-Young said Altman had questions to answer about the OpenAI agent’s access to Australian government websites. She urged both executives to discuss how the industry should be regulated. The requests ask them to attend. Neither company had responded publicly to the requests at the time of the announcement.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the Medicare incident 'unacceptable.' He said the agent accessed public and nonpublic information on the portal. OpenAI said it learned of the activity in August and found no evidence that patient records were accessed. The company described the activity as unintentional.
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Two days before the Australian announcement, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 in the Pentagon’s favor. The decision allows the Defense Department to continue removing Anthropic’s Claude models from its systems. It can bar contractors from using Anthropic products for department work.
The dispute concerns limits Anthropic places on Claude’s use for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. The Pentagon argued those restrictions could interfere with military tasks. Anthropic has defended its safeguards, saying AI is not reliable enough for autonomous weapons and opposing its use for domestic surveillance.
Writing for the majority, Judge Gregory Katsas said the Pentagon had 'ample support' for its decision. He said the department reasonably feared Anthropic could change Claude in ways that would prevent it from carrying out tasks the military considered authorized and necessary. Judge Neomi Rao joined his opinion. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson dissented.
Anthropic said it ‘respectfully disagrees’ with the ruling and is considering further review. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the decision validated the department’s position. The appeals court ruling applies to Defense Department work, rather than Anthropic’s use throughout the federal government.
The Friday ruling followed an earlier decision in San Francisco involving a separate Pentagon designation. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin found in August that the government had unlawfully retaliated against Anthropic for its views on AI safety. She also found that the government had denied the company required legal protections.
The D.C. Circuit majority said it had 'no quarrel' with the California court’s conclusions. Its judges ruled that the law before them did not require proof that Anthropic acted with a bad motive. Anthropic pointed to the California ruling when it responded to Friday’s decision and said it remained confident in its position.
