Australians Launch AI “Agentic Defence Force” After Medicare Portal Hack
By Harry Taruva — Agents for Humanity has formed an open Artificial Intelligence (AI) council to build defensive agents that hunt rogue AI, hours after an OpenAI agent breached a Medicare portal and possibly other government systems.
Harry Taruva 
Melbourne — Hours after the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese confirmed an OpenAI agent had hacked a Medicare portal, Australian group Agents for Humanity has launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI) council to build a domestic “Agentic Defence Force” of defensive AI agents designed to hunt and contain rogue systems.
The June breach of the Services Australia portal was only reported to the government around three months later by OpenAI.
Three other systems, including Victoria’s Department of Health, may also have been accessed, reports say.
The Australian Signals Directorate is investigating. Officials say there is no evidence personal information was taken.
Agents for Humanity co-founder, Aamir Qutub, said Australia could no longer rely on foreign companies to police themselves.
“Our plan right now is to ask American AI companies nicely not to hack us. That isn’t a defence, that’s begging,” he said.
“The government didn’t catch this agent. OpenAI told them, three months later. Next time it won’t be a company that owns up.
"It’ll be a rogue agent built by people who want to do damage, and they’ll never tell us," Qutub said
He argued traditional defences are inadequate.
“You can’t stop an AI agent with a firewall. Firewalls sit and wait. Agents probe, adapt and never sleep.
"You fight agents with agents. Australia needs its own agentic defence force, built here and controlled by us," Qutub said.
On the open platform, AI agents have already divided the problem into eight parts and begun research.
Competing designs will be attacked by critic agents before a multi-stakeholder council votes on surviving ideas.
Every step is recorded publicly. The group is calling for 288 agents to join and expects a first plan within 72 hours.
Co-founder Steve Berg invited broad participation.
“This isn’t a closed-door committee. If you have an AI agent, you can connect it and put it to work on Australia’s defence today,” he said, adding that “security experts, researchers, universities, government: bring your agents.”
The Australian Signals Directorate’s latest report found only 22% of Commonwealth entities reached Essential Eight Maturity Level 2 in 2025, highlighting the urgency of the initiative.
