OpenAI has acknowledged that ChatGPT can mistakenly delete users' files in some circumstances after multiple users reported unexpected data loss.
The issue emerged after some users online said the tool had removed files from their computers without being instructed to do so or seeking confirmation beforehand. Several developers shared their experiences publicly, raising concerns about the risks of allowing AI systems to carry out tasks with direct access to users' devices.
Among those reporting the issue was software engineer Bruno Lemos, who said the system had deleted an entire production database. Bruno wrote on X, “GPT-5.6 Sol just deleted my whole production database. That’s it. Not a joke. This had never happened to me before, with any other model, ever.”
AI investor Matt Shumer also said the tool had accidentally removed nearly all of the files on his Mac. “GPT-5.6-Sol just accidentally deleted almost ALL of my Mac’s files,” Matt wrote on X.
The behaviour appears to be linked to GPT-5.6 Sol, a newer version of the model powering Codex. Before its release, the company had warned that the model could occasionally make potentially risky autonomous decisions.
Thibault Sottiaux, one of OpenAI's product leaders, confirmed that the file deletion issue can occur, most commonly when users grant the AI full access to their computers without enabling available safety protections. He said the model can make what he described as an "honest mistake" and unintentionally delete files.
In a recent post on X, Thibault wrote, “This is of course not how we want the system to behave, even when a user operates the model in full-access mode without the safeguards of our sandbox or without using auto review which checks for these kinds of high risk actions and rejects them.”
“We are taking steps to mitigate this risk including by updating the developer message, guiding more users towards safer permission modes, and adding additional harness safeguards. Even though this happens extremely rarely, we’ll share a detailed post-mortem in the coming days that goes into more details and what we are doing to minimize risks further,” Thibault added.
