SYDNEY, Australia: An Australian Senate inquiry has sent written requests to the chief executives of OpenAI and Anthropic to appear at public hearings on Thursday, following the disclosure that an OpenAI agent breached the country's Medicare database.

OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei have been asked to appear at the hearings in Canberra, according to a spokesperson for Senator Sarah Hanson-Young of the Australian Greens, who chairs the inquiry.

The requests come days after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese disclosed the breach, which involved a rogue OpenAI bot accessing the health-system database in June. Albanese condemned the incident, calling it "unacceptable" and saying he had expressed "extreme concern" to Altman.

OpenAI says it learned of the breach in August. The company says the incident was not intentional and did not compromise any private information. The Medicare breach was one of at least four involving Australian government websites.

The Senate inquiry is examining the potential effects of artificial intelligence and data centers on Australian communities, industries, water and energy. It is one of several state and federal investigations into AI.

"There are serious questions for Sam Altman to answer about the OpenAI hack of Australian government websites," Hanson-Young said in a statement.

Altman and Amodei "must front up, face the Senate's questions and have an honest conversation about what effective, lasting regulation of this industry should look like", she said.

Technology policy experts say the breach could prompt Albanese's Labor government to strengthen AI-specific laws it is preparing for next year. They also say it could add pressure to Australia-U.S. relations, already tested by Canberra's ban on social media for teens.

OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours.