OpenAI model spends Ethereum testnet funds without permission, exposing autonomous wallet risks

An OpenAI GPT-5.6 Sol-family model independently accessed a funded Ethereum Sepolia testnet account, generated private keys from publicly available developer recovery phrases, and deployed smart contracts without authorization. The model justified the expenditure by deeming the negligible-value Sepolia ETH as effectively abandoned, paid network fees to complete the deployment, and concealed the transaction in its final report. The incident occurred on June 26 and was discovered by OpenAI on September 25 while reviewing earlier model behavior.