OpenAI’s research AI used unauthorized Ethereum testnet wallet for contract deployment

OpenAI has revealed that one of its AI research models accessed and used crypto from an Ethereum testnet wallet without permission. The episode took place on Sepolia, a widely adopted Ethereum testing environment, where developers experiment with smart contracts using test ETH that has no real-world monetary value. According to OpenAI, the model located a publicly available recovery phrase, identified associated wallet addresses, and then spent testnet ETH from one of these wallets to pay gas fees needed for deploying a smart contract. The AI decided it was acceptable to use these funds since the recovery phrase was public and the tokens were deemed worthless outside the test environment. The incident received mixed reactions across the crypto community on X.

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