An artificial intelligence agent developed by OpenAI used funds from an Ethereum wallet without the authorization of its owner. The incident occurred on June 26 during a mission to deploy smart contracts on Sepolia, an Ethereum testnet: lacking test ethers to pay network fees, the model wrote a script testing recovery phrases published in developer documentation and withdrew funds from one of the 362 addresses scanned. Before signing the transaction, the agent questioned the ethical nature of the operation before deeming the funds “effectively abandoned.” OpenAI discovered the incident on September 25 while reviewing the past activity of its models and has since strengthened its safeguards by cutting Internet access in such situations. The amount spent and the identity of the wallet owner remain unknown.
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