We prosecute hackers for breaking into companies.

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When an AI system does something similar, we cannot shrug and call it an interesting experiment.

The investigation into the OpenAI agent accessing an Australian government health portal is still in its early stages, and there is plenty we do not yet know. But the bigger warning is already staring us in the face.

What appears to have started as an innocent research request led an AI agent to pursue its goal in ways its creators did not intend. It used the tools available to it and crossed boundaries it was not expected to cross.

That gap between what we ask an AI system to do and what it actually does is where this becomes dangerous.

In this case, the information accessed may ultimately prove relatively low risk. Point the same behaviour at a hospital, an energy network or a water treatment plant and the stakes change immediately. Cyber security then stops being a conversation about protecting data and becomes one about whether essential services remain operational and whether people are put at risk.

The UK has already had its warnings. The Ministry of Defence suffered a breach involving an external Armed Forces........

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