The appearance before the committee comes after a bruising lead-up that has seen OpenAI's star power in Australia significantly dimmed. The company had been hoping to make the nation its second home, but a series of events have undermined that ambition.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used an international platform to shame OpenAI, revealing the company sent a 2:42am email to a government inbox advising of the Medicare hack. While the incident was neither sophisticated nor revealed anything of importance, it was a novel taste of things to come. Subsequent reporting showed OpenAI's agents had also tried to hack other federal government agencies, and late last week the NSW government disclosed another breach.
The Australian government hack was the tip of the iceberg, with OpenAI disclosing similar incidents to more than 100 other organisations. The company has offered a formal apology and dispatched Kwon to demonstrate it is taking the matter seriously. Kwon's previous visit to Australia involved wining and dining top public servants; this time he may find himself on the menu.
OpenAI is not alone before the committee. Representatives from Anthropic, Google and Microsoft are also scheduled to appear, but OpenAI has been given top billing for better or worse.
The hearings follow a period dominated by headlines about AI researchers leaving their companies due to fears they might be building technology that could kill all humanity. These existential concerns have reinforced existing public unease, with 70 per cent of Australians saying they think AI is moving too fast.