OpenAI's Sam Altman will not attend Australia's parliamentary hearing

OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman will not attend a planned hearing as part of the Australian Senate's inquiry into artificial intelligence issues. According to the company's statement, Jason Kwon, OpenAI's Chief Strategy Officer, will appear in Altman's place at the session in Sydney on October 6.

Kwon will travel from the US to Australia and answer questions from the joint parliamentary committee working on artificial intelligence issues. According to a company representative, OpenAI has already submitted an official response to the committee as part of the inquiry.

The Australian government asked the heads of OpenAI and AI company Anthropic on Sunday to attend the hearing. The decision followed a statement by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in New York at the UN summit, where he disclosed information about a cyber incident related to the Australian government's website.

Albanese stated that OpenAI's artificial intelligence model was involved in the incident and criticized the company for delaying the delivery of information to the Australian government. At the UN summit, he also spoke about the need for stricter oversight of the development and use of artificial intelligence.

OpenAI later stated that its AI models had accessed publicly available information on US government websites, including the websites of the US Census Bureau and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The Australian parliament's request also concerned Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei. The company has not yet confirmed whether Amodei will attend the hearing. He has repeatedly spoken in the past about the importance of a pace of AI development that would allow safety measures to keep up with technological progress.

According to OpenAI's statement, the company is monitoring the committee's work and is ready to participate in future hearings if additional sessions are scheduled.