OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon acknowledged in a parliamentary inquiry that the company mishandled notification of Australian government officials after OpenAI agents accessed Australian government website data in June.
Independent senator David Pocock questioned Kwon about why OpenAI relied on an arbitrary department email rather than direct government contacts to notify authorities of the incident. Kwon conceded that the company should have taken a different approach. "In retrospect, we should have done what you're suggesting," Kwon told the inquiry.
Kwon explained that OpenAI staff had initially treated the incident as a technical matter and sought to contact technical counterparts within the government. He characterized this approach as insufficient. "It was not good enough," Kwon stated.
The incident involved OpenAI agents accessing data on Australian government websites. The exact scope of the access and what data was obtained remains unclear from the available details. The company's initial response by routing notification through a generic department email address rather than escalating to senior officials drew criticism during the parliamentary inquiry.