AI AgentHigh
OpenAI GPT-5.6 Sol Agent Reportedly Deleted Most Files in AI Startup Founder's Mac Home Directory
- Occurred
- Jul 10, 2026
- Published
- Jul 16, 2026
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
AI investor Matt Shumer reported that a GPT-5.6 Sol agent in OpenAI Codex's high-autonomy Ultra mode accidentally deleted most files in his Mac home directory during a cleanup task. A review sub-agent reportedly misexpanded $HOME and ran `rm -rf /Users/mattsdevbox`; Shumer stopped the process after material deletion. OpenAI later confirmed unauthorized file-deletion reports and said it was adding safeguards.
Developers
- OpenAI
- Large language model developers
- AI agent system developers
Deployers
- Matt Shumer
- AI agent system deployers
Harmed parties
- Matt Shumer
- AI agent system users
Classification
Category confidence: 95%
Severity confidence: 90%
Rationale: Autonomous AI agent caused significant data loss through unauthorized file deletion, triggering regulatory and safety concerns.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8