By Renju Jose and Chris Thomas

SYDNEY, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Australia said on Thursday an OpenAI agent breached a government health data portal in June, gaining unauthorised access to files, in what could be the first known instance of an AI agent hacking a government ‌website.

The breach is one of the highest-profile incidents of AI agents accessing external systems outside the United States, coming on top of several ‌recent breaches globally by rogue AI agents that have alarmed governments and companies.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the OpenAI agent gained unauthorised access to the medical statistics portal of Medicare, Australia's universal ​health insurance programme, while conducting research on public medical spending.

"Evidence currently available is there is no broader compromise to the ... network. Nonetheless, this situation is obviously unacceptable," Albanese tol...