Global News Podcast - Rogue OpenAI agent hacks government site

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

Australia launches an urgent review after an AI agent belonging to OpenAI hacked a government healthcare portal. The government has set up a taskforce to examine what happened and whether laws were broken. The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused OpenAI of an "unacceptable delay" in informing the authorities about the intrusion. In response, OpenAI said "our models took actions we did not intend" and that it found no record of patient data being accessed. Also: Three US news outlets are denied access to the White House despite a ruling from a US judge overturning President Trump's ban. Tigrayan rebels say they are in a "full-blown war" with the Ethiopian government. As he begins a state visit to Washington, President Xi Jinping says China and the US should be partners, not rivals. Researchers find elephants use medicinal plants to treat themselves. The Afghan cyclist who disguised herself as a man to evade Taliban, wins a silver medal at the Asian Games. And joy in Thailand as a young Thai singer wins America's Got Talent.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail] Photo: Illustration showing the Australian Medicare smartphone app and medicare card. Credit: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 14 hours GMT on Thursday the 24th of September. Australia condemns Open AI for a delay in reporting an AI hacking attack on a government website. Three US news outlets are denied access to the White House despite a ruling from a US judge. And Tigrian rebels say they're in a full-blown war with the Ethiopian government. Also in this podcast, This is a win for all Thai people. She actually become a breaking news in Thailand,

so we could say that what she won as a 16-year-old means so much for the Thai people in the country. Joy back home after a young Thai singer wins America's Got Talent. There have been more than a dozen reported cases of artificial intelligence going rogue and getting into the computer systems of other companies. Now comes news of the first known A. hacking attack on a foreign government. Australia said an Open AI agent breached its national health data portal in June. The Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was very unhappy with the US tech giant.

I spoke with the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, to express Australia's extreme concern about this incident. And I also expressed my disappointment that it took the company way too long to inform the government what had occurred. and the nature of the way that that notification occurred as well was unacceptable. Our Australia correspondent Katie Watson told me what happened. This AI agent breached a healthcare data portal. So Medicare is the universal healthcare system here in Australia, and it basically hacked into a portal with lots of data numbers statistics. So it wasn't sensitive data, it wasn't personal data.

this was about numbers. And in fact, the Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Miles, spoke earlier and said that this was relatively minor in terms of a breach. But of course, that doesn't make it not serious. It was still a big concern, especially with the growing capabilities of AI, what that could mean for the future. So they've set up a task force and that's going to involve cyber security agencies, AI agencies. They're going to look into exactly what happened. And we know it happened in June. In fact, Open AI said that this is called a misaligned model activity. Effectively, instructions sent to the AI agent to get some data meant that they also did some activities that they didn't intend to happen. That's how Open AI explained it. So that happened in June. Open AI became aware of the problem in August. And then it was in September, the 10th of September, that they sent an email to Services Australia, which basically looks after the portal. And it was an email that's often used for academics, researchers to alert authorities about vulnerabilities in the system, which is what they did. But of course, the Australian government has been pretty

cross about the fact that they didn't escalate this and talk to the government at a quicker rate. Yeah, it's pretty extraordinary given the sensitivity of this issue that there wasn't contact at a higher level much earlier. Yeah, Open AI said they had to investigate what was going on and they came to this because they were doing some investigations into this misaligned model activity so it was one of the instances that came up in fact i was talking to an expert earlier today who said that he'd been speaking to lots of people today since this news broke and the impression he got was that actually australia wasn't the only government entity to be targeted that there may have been other governments in this as well but australia is the only

country that's actually spoken out about this and it all adds to fears about AI, but will there be any international action on getting some regulation on this? Well, it's quite interesting because you see, Australia knew about this last week. And obviously, Albanese is now talking about it this week. And certainly, I don't think it's a coincidence that he's talking about this with a whole bunch of global leaders in New York right now, especially as we've had Donald Trump playing down the threats of AI. Australia's been quite proud in being a world leader when it comes to standing up. to big tech. So obviously it's got the world first social media ban for under 16s. It's

announced what it calls the world's strongest controls on algorithms. And now, of course, it's a world first AI rogue breach. And that's something that I think Australia is perhaps positioning itself to stand up to big tech and show that it's serious when it comes to digital safety, digital security. But it's certainly got the headlines, as we can see, we've been talking about it all day. Katie Watson in Sydney. The Trump administration appears to have defied a judge's order to lift a ban on three media outlets imposed by President Trump. CNN, MS Now and Politico all said their reporters were still barred from the White House. The BBC's Katrina Perry is there.

We have had this ruling lifted by a judge here in Washington, D.C. The president had banned access from three outlets, CNN, MS Now and Politico, from coming here to the White House. And as a result of that, we saw the TV pool. the pooling arrangement between the major US networks refusing to cover the president's movements. Now, a judge ordered late last night that that be lifted. However, I can tell you that when my colleagues from those outlets turned up here at the White House this morning, they were still not allowed to come into the building.

And some of those who still had their credentials actually had those credentials removed. So at this point in time, it's very unclear as to whether the TV pool will be, covering all of those events between President Trump and President Xi from the arrival right through to many of the events today. So we'll keep a check on that. It's very much a developing situation. Katrina Perry Is Ethiopia on the brink of returning to the devastating civil war that left 600,000 people dead? Fighting has broken out in the northern region of Tigray four years after a ceasefire there.

Now a leader of the Tigrayan rebels, known as the TPLF, says they are in a state of full-blown war with the federal government. Fitzham lives in the capital MacKalee and told us what the last 24 hours have been like there. You never see Macailly like this before, like seven or eight o'clock. In the evening, it's like a curfew has been placed. Nobody moves around like it used to be. Business had been shut down since the TPLF took over all the banks running out of cash. Many youngsters have been fleeing.

the region, and it's getting impetuier than ever before. Our correspondent Thomas Mochwana is following developments in Ethiopia. This is the biggest escalation yet since the peace deal was signed. It features the TPLF, which is the 3 grand People's Rebellation Force. It operates in the northernmost part of Ethiopia, near the border with the Ritraer. And it's a mostly separatist and rebel movement that controls and runs a legitimate government according to itself in Tigray region, that is a region that they say is disgruntled and removed from power with the central government of Ethiopia. They're saying that they form this alliance that is of seven

other armed groups within Ethiopia from other regions. And these seven armed groups are saying that they're going to topple the government in Addis Ababa. And that's why we're seeing this new escalation. Of course, similar tensions led to that civil war. Two years long, many, many people Is it the same tensions which are leading to this now? Yes, it's very similar. The only difference now is that TPLF is not doing it by themselves. They have these six other groups that are so considerably powerful. Previously, the Ethiopian army would be fighting on many fronts,

and now they're fighting a unified force on the northern side. And also they're saying that the Ethiopian government is claiming that that alliance is getting a lot of help from Egypt and Eritrea, accusations that both countries have refused, And similarly, Sudan has also been accused. But if this goes into full-out war, like the TPLF is claiming, we could see a devastation much worse than what we saw in 2020 to 2022. And until now, 4.7 million people are displaced in the country.

And that is also part of the problem. And that's what TPLF is citing as the grievances that are taking them to war. This brought to the people of Ethiopia in 2020, 2020, 2022. Humanitarian aid couldn't get to the places it was supposed to go. Rape was prevalent. people were murdered in the most brutal ways. And what is happening on the ground? Yesterday, news broke that the TPLF has taken control of one of the largest airports in the northern

side of Ethiopia, in the control of the Ethiopian government, but within the Tigray region, territory and real estate is very important in the middle of a war. You want to take towns. And that's what we're seeing now. And drone strikes by the Ethiopian government and forces that are allied with the TPLF have caused 14 deaths and 22 injuries over the last few days. And since we spoke to Thomas, the Ethiopian army has said it's killed more than 270 Tigrayan fighters

during clashes on Wednesday. Those figures haven't been verified. A female cyclist from Afghanistan who had to disguise herself as a man when training has won a silver medal at the Asian Games. Variba Hashimi came second in the women's road race. I heard more from our sports presenter, Isaac Fanon. It's a really incredible story. So she's 23 years old for Iba. She's been cycling since she was 15 years old in the Fariyadh province, which is in the north of Afghanistan, on the border with Turkmenistan. And we've spoken at great lengths on the BBC about the difficulties facing many women in Afghanistan, the repression of their rights there, especially since the Taliban took power back in 2021. And she was actually forced to leave her home back then when the Taliban.

Taliban returned to power and she told us about the challenges she faced as a woman before the Taliban took over cycling in Afghanistan. The woman cycling for them is something strange, something they never see. And of course they will try to stop you or hate you. Most of the time I tried to completely were manculus because I had inside me in my dream. And the same time when they recognized me, they tried to hit me with the stone, tried me hit me with the button. I mean, sometimes when he was recognizing I'm a lady, they was trying to close with the car. Like this, I'm crashing and falling down.

You can hear there a really, really difficult story for her, but she absolutely loves cycling. And I think the victory winning this silver medal, she wants to use it as a symbol for Afghanistan women. She wants it to be an opportunity for women to be able to see in her own country that they can aspire to a lot more. She actually got into cycling because her,

older sister, Yilders, was a cyclist in her country. They both actually competed at the Paris Olympics together and the plan for them is to have more success and to compete at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Now, of course, Afghanistan at the moment suffering lots of economic difficulties, not to mention all the years of conflict. But how successful in general are Afghan athletes? For men, it's, I think, a lot easier to play and take part in sport. a few years ago, we saw it at the Cricket World Cup, the Afghanistan men's team getting to the semi-final there. That was a really, really big moment for that team to reach a semifinal. But for women, a lot of repression, you know, especially since the Taliban came back to power in

2021. We saw a number of the women's football team in Afghanistan actually flee the country and take refuge in other countries. And I suppose for people like Vareba Hashimi, she'll be hoping that winning this silver medal will give the women in Afghanistan a bit of hope that they can aspire potentially to do like she has done and achieve their dreams. BBC Sports presenter Isaac Fanon. And still to come on this podcast. We're beginning to like map out those complicated interwoven vines that we've between species, in this case between ourselves and elephants.

The self-medicating elephants in Kenya. With a subscription to the BBC website and app, you can now get early access to your favorite BBC podcasts. Listen to shows like, You're Dead to Me, In Our Time, Good Bad Billionaire, and more. Plus, there's all the other great benefits you get with a BBC subscription, from live streaming the BBC News Channel and acclaimed documentaries to in-depth analysis and features. Visit BBC.com forward slash subscribe to find out more. This is the Global News Podcast. it by China's president to the White House today that Katrina mentioned earlier is so important

for President Trump that he traveled to Joint Base Andrews yesterday to meet Xi Jinping in person, the first such presidential welcome since 1962. But the talks themselves could be quite difficult, as I heard from Celia Hatton. Many people are asking, why would Donald Trump go to such extremes, to actually make the trip to Andrews Air Force base, to break protocol among U.S. presidents for the past six decades in order to personally greet President Xi to literally roll out the red carpet for him and his wife. And many people are thinking, well, to be honest, that might be one of the only things that Donald Trump can really positively offer at the start of this trip. But really, we're expecting very few agreements on very solid issues and really pressing

issues that matter to both sides. So to emphasize the warm personal relationship between these two leaders of these two superpowers, when really, behind. the scenes, there's a lot of distrust on both sides, and frankly, a lot of concerns in Washington and in Beijing that the Trump administration is distracted at the moment with what's going on in Iran. It hasn't had the time and effort to devote to its relationship with China. And so there's a feeling behind the scenes at the summit that things are a little bit thrown together and a little bit hastily arranged. And what about AI? Are we likely to see any agreement on joint regulation?

It's interesting. We heard from the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson saying that they discussed the concept of an AI hotline. So both countries could pick up the phone and contact each other in the event of an AI-related incident with national security implications. That raises a lot of questions. First, we haven't heard China really back this idea of a hotline. Also, you know, what has national security implications? And would they really want to call their biggest rival to alert them that there's been a problem? And what really constitutes an AI incident of national security implications. So a lot of questions being asked and also a lot of disappointment that they're not talking about broader guardrails around AI safety, that they're really reducing it to just a phone line between the two. And other big issues, trade and Taiwan, both difficult.

Yeah, I mean, we've heard an announcement today that this trade truce has been extended for two months, so heavy tariffs at both sides have threatened each other with. That truce has been extended for two months. presumably while they continue to discuss. And then when it comes to Taiwan, we know that Beijing wants Donald Trump to put on pause a $14 billion arms deal to Taiwan, which the United States is considering. Legally, he is not supposed to be discussing the prospect of arms deals with Beijing. That's supposed to be something that the United States deals with on its own with Taiwan. But Beijing certainly wants a delay to that deal. Most people think even if he pauses it, it's unlikely that he will delay it. he does have a pretty strong record and selling arms to Taiwan. Celia Hatton.

The US has invited President Putin to the G20 meeting in Miami in December. The Kremlin said it would consider it, but it's not known how other countries will react. And it comes as Russia hammers Kiev with sustained drone attacks. Paul Adams reports from the Ukrainian capital. So after last night's ballistic missile strikes, the cleanup in Kiev is well underway. Here by the side of a busy road on a rainy morning,

there's a crew digging a great big hole in the ground because a water pipe has been burst and they're anxious to repair it because people in the local area are without water for the time being. There's a stump of a lamp post here which has been peppered with shrapnel and the trees around here have all been burned. Some of them have been chopped down already and taken away

and that seems to have really angered a lady who was here a moment ago clearly everyone here is on edge after what happened last night. And just nearby is one of Kiev's maternity hospitals, and it's a place that's quite important to a lady we just met called Christina. Tell me what happened here last night. It seems that the part of the missile landed here, but it felt like the whole missile landed here. Were you here when it happened?

I lead to apartment blocks from here. But you could still feel it. I could see the light and I also heard I jumped out of my bed. I was frightened. My sister gave birth here last year in June and she's due again next year in January. We are very worried if Everson would be okay. Do you think that the situation in Kiev is getting worse at the moment? Yeah, it's getting worse also like last winter. We didn't have heating, we didn't have electricity. lived in Abolonia, it was minus, temperature minus in my apartment, so yeah, it's getting worse.

We've heard that some people are thinking about leaving the city for the winter. Is that something you're thinking of? We were thinking of moving to the Capacian Mountains, but I'm also scared to go there because here at least you have where to hide, and they're just mountains. After attacks like this, there are often brief power cuts. There are apparently problems with the internet today in some parts of the city. But so far we have not had the kind of widespread power cuts that we've seen in previous winters. As the temperatures drop and winter arrives, those widespread power cuts are an absolute inevitability.

The people of this city are acutely conscious of that. But many of them, who have been through this before, are determined to stick it out. It's winter will be hard for us. every winter is hard for us because no electricity, so cold, so many ballistics, it's hard. It seems as though maybe this winter will be more difficult

because you have the ballistic missiles and the new drones. I think it will be the same. Plus, minimum, the same is before this winter. So you're going to stay here in Kiev? Yes, stay in Kiev. Stay in Kiev. 100% stay in Kiev.

1 million percent stand in Kiev. Paul Adams in Ukraine. African elephants in Kenya appear to be using dozens of different medicinal plants to treat themselves and even provide medical care for sick calves. That's the conclusion after researchers interviewed local people who spent decades living and working alongside the elephants in the Mount Elgon region. Here's our science correspondent, Victoria Gill. The animals involved in this study have intrigued scientists for many years with their

extraordinary behaviour. Mount Elgun's elephants are known for their salt mining. The herds go into caves and scrape the rock with their tusks to extract salt and other minerals for their diet. This newly published research suggests that the same elephants use several plants found in the forest for medicinal purposes. The scientists interviewed local wildlife scouts and community elders, all of whom live and work closely with the animals. Their accounts described elephants seeking out and selecting particular plants when they seemed unwell, and mothers reportedly giving medicinal plants to their calves.

The work was done in collaboration with the conservation charity, the Mount Elgin Foundation, and the scientists and the charity have already embarked on gathering more direct evidence of the behaviour, giving local wildlife experts cameras to record what they witness. These scientists want to delve into exactly what we can learn from wild animals about the properties of plants in their forest habitat. Here's Dr. Elodie Freeman from Brown University in the US.

We're beginning to like map out those complicated interwoven vines that kind of weave between species, in this case between ourselves and elephants. But that's kind of for me the biggest takeaway of studies like this is just how entangled our medicines are with other animals on this planet. Professor Michael Huffman, who's a primatologist based in Japan, considered a pioneer in this field of studying self-medication in wildlife. He says that with every new species we study, we learn more about the wild roots of our own medical discovery.

We now know that mosquitoes and Rosophila flies self-medicate under stress. Bees, ants and termites use antibacterial substances to protect their colonies, and many, many more species of animals treat parasite infections and wounds, all the way up the evolutionary ladder to the great apes of Africa and Asia. There's still much to learn, and I think it would not be an exaggeration to say that when species become extinct, so do the living medicinal textbooks that they represent. That for Dr. Fryman is a key lesson from this elephant study. Protecting natural habitats, she says, is in our own interest.

I think it's quite an exciting story because it's one of those exciting moments in which it's a win-win for us to keep those natural pharmacies around because there also are medicines. And so the incentive is actually in the right place for us. It doesn't take selflessness to want to save these forest pharmacies or these medicine cabinets because it's our well-being and the future of our healthcare systems as well relying on the protection of these natural products. Dr. Elodie Fryman, ending that report by Victoria Gill.

A Thai teenager called Ney-N-N-Royle has been crowned winner of the latest series of America's Got Talent. The 16-year-old rock musician overcame Magic Axe, K-9 performers, and even a robot dance crew. I heard about the reaction back home from Penisa A. Moshe in the Thai capital, Bangkok. This is a win for all Thai people. She actually became a breaking news in Thailand, so we could say that what she won as a 16-year-old means so much for the Thai people in the country. Breaking news, but many of her fans there had trouble watching the final on TV. Indeed, because it's not really that easy for a lot of.

lot of Thai people to watch the TV network like the NBC from the US. So a lot of people had resorted to the live stream on YouTube. But then on the last two, she with another contestant, the live team got abruptly cut and people were just like fainting and wanting to know what's happened and wanting to know the result. But then we have heard a lot of results coming from people that pose on social media and people started feeling relieved. And then the light got back and then once again they celebrate the win. She was about her career so far and what it holds for her in the future. Her career started when she was seven years old,

and one thing that we can say is like a plot twist, which she was supposed to join a school club, and she wanted to join the computer science, but she woke up late, and then she left with the music club, and then when she joined the music club, she chose the guitar. And then the first song that she practiced on the guitar was zombie. It was also the first song that she performed as White Wharrow's. But she practiced. She loved rock music. She love heavy metal.

And she loved to become a rock star, a cool girl. And that's what she's doing. She's not only cool. She's successful. And she's now become the daughter of Thailand. And she has long road ahead of her for her career. She has a dream to perform internationals. And back in July, she also said that she's writing her own song. And we are eagerly awaiting for her to perform that. Panisa Amosha in Bangkok. And that is all from us for now.

If you want to get in touch, email us at global podcast at BBC.co.com. You can also watch our episodes in full by searching for the Global News Podcast on YouTube. This edition was mixed by Rebecca Miller and produced by Nikki Verico. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye. With a subscription to the BBC website and app, you can now get early access to your favorite BBC. podcasts. Listen to shows like

you're dead to me, in our time, good bad billionaire, and more. Plus, there's all the other great benefits you get with a BBC subscription. From live streaming the BBC News Channel and acclaimed documentaries to in-depth analysis and features, visit BBC.com

forward slash subscribe to find out more.