AustraliaPublic sector2022 – ongoingAustralian Department of Home Affairs
Staff experimentation with ChatGPT
Australia's Home Affairs department suspended ChatGPT access after staff experimentation raised information security concerns
Problem
Home Affairs allowed staff to explore ChatGPT's potential for research and technical troubleshooting. The tool had been available in some circumstances from November 2022.
Approach
Staff experimented with technical research and coding questions before the department blocked network access on 17 May 2023. Secretary Mike Pezzullo said individual use without safeguards did not meet the department's security requirements, and access thereafter required a business case and approval. A questionnaire used to reconstruct earlier use drew criticism from Senator David Shoebridge over record keeping. The department said it found no evidence of departmental or classified information being submitted, formal decisions being made with ChatGPT, or generated code being uploaded into departmental systems.
Results
No published figures
Takeaway
Access preceded a requirement for individual experiments to receive specific approval. The department later relied on staff recollections to explain earlier use, while disputing that those experiments had exposed protected information or affected formal decisions.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Public sector
- Business function
- IT and R&DInternal work and knowledge management
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Generative AI
- Adoption
- Off-the-shelf tool or platform
- Evidence
- Press reporting
Sources
Source summaries
The report dated the experimentation period from November 2022 to the May 2023 suspension. It described criticism of the retrospective questionnaire and the department's response that experimentation had not produced production code or formal decisions.
The report quoted departmental leaders explaining the suspension at Senate estimates. Pezzullo objected to individual use without security safeguards, while chief operating officer Justine Saunders said departments could seek approval through a business case.
This response to a parliamentary question confirmed the 17 May network block. The department said it found no evidence of protected information being entered or formal decisions being made with the tool, and no resulting code was uploaded into departmental systems.
Full details are in the original sources.
