I am requesting information on the scope of AI or bot-powered Freedom of Information requests the government is receiving
Dear Attorney-General's Department,
Following both the Attorney-General and Mark Butler referencing "AI bots" potentially used by "foreign actors" creating an overload of "anonymous or vexatious requests", I am hoping to be provided with evidence of the same.
What nations, how many, and how many of these requests are being made?
Any information provided to back up these statements would be appreciated
Yours faithfully,
David Hollingworth
Journalist
Thank you for contacting the Freedom of Information (FOI) team at the
Attorney-General’s Department (the department). We get a high volume of
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Good morning Mr Hollingworth
Thank you for your FOI request which was received by the Attorney-General's Department on 2 September 2025.
In order for a request to be valid under s 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act, we require such information concerning the document as is reasonably necessary to enable a responsible officer of the agency to identify it. We are not able to process requests for information or requests for research to be undertaken by officers of the department.
In order to assist you to make a valid request, we invite you to revise your request by specifying the documents to which you are seeking access. Noting the terms of your original request, we suggest the following revision:
"Advice or briefing material provided by the Attorney-General's Department to the Attorney-General's Office in relation to the use of AI bots potentially being used by foreign actors to create an overload of anonymous or vexatious FOI requests."
Please let us know if you agree to this revision of your request, or whether you wish to provide an alternative revision of scope.
Kind regards
Freedom of Information & Privacy
Attorney-General’s Department
Phone: (02) 6141 6666 | Email: [AGD request email]
Dear AGD FOI Requests,
I am updating my request to look for the following:
"Advice or briefing material provided by the Attorney-General's Department to the Attorney-General's Office in relation to the use of AI bots potentially being used by foreign actors to create an overload of anonymous or vexatious FOI requests."
Yours sincerely,
David Hollingworth
Thank you for contacting the Freedom of Information (FOI) team at the
Attorney-General’s Department (the department). We get a high volume of
emails and FOI applications and work to respond as promptly as possible.
This auto-reply email confirms your email has been delivered to the
[AGD request email] mailbox. If you have written to the department to submit an
FOI request, please consider this email to be an acknowledgement of its
receipt.
Please note that we will only respond to emails about the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act). For information on how to make a
request under the FOI Act please refer to:
https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protect....
For enquiries about other matters, please refer to:
https://www.ag.gov.au/about-us/connect-u....
The statutory processing time for FOI requests is 30 days, however this
may be extended if the department needs to consult third parties or for
other reasons. If you have submitted an FOI request, the department will
write to you again within 30 days of receiving your request. This
correspondence may:
* provide assistance to you to help you make a valid FOI request,
* seek further information from you to help us process your request,
* provide you with a decision on your FOI request, or
* discuss whether an extension of time is needed to process your request.
Please do not send duplicate emails as this may cause delays to processing
times.
This FOI inbox is monitored during business hours Monday to Friday,
excluding public holidays.
You can expect our team to provide a helpful, respectful service and we
expect respectful engagement in return.
Under s 89L of the FOI Act, disrespectful, threatening or abusive language
may be an abuse of the access action process. If this happens, we may not
be able to help you or we might take steps to manage how we communicate
with you.
If you have received this transmission in error please notify us
immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies. If this e-mail or any
attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute
waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of
information in the e-mail or attachments.
If you have received this transmission in error please notify us
immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies. If this e-mail or any
attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute
waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of
information in the e-mail or attachments.