Open AI’s GPT-5.6 Sol linked to alleged Mac file deletion

• This is an AI-generated image created for publication purposes to illustrate the alleged file-deletion incident involving OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol.

An AI entrepreneur said an agent powered by OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol was behind the reported deletion of his Mac’s home directory after a cleanup command targeted the wrong location.

Matt Shumer, founder of OthersideAI, the company behind AI writing platform HyperWrite, initially posted on X: “GPT-5.6-Sol just accidentally deleted almost ALL of my Mac’s files.” He later clarified that the incident affected his Mac’s home directory.

In a screenshot shared by Shumer, the agent reported that a review subagent had incorrectly expanded the $HOME variable before running the following command:

“rm -rf /Users/mattsdevbox”

Photo courtesy of Matt Shumer

The technical explanation and extent of the damage have not been independently verified. No underlying system logs or complete agent activity records were publicly provided.

Shumer said he had used GPT-5.6 Sol because OpenAI had invited him to test Ultra mode.

“The only reason I was using it today is because the OpenAI team asked me to test Ultra mode,” Shumer wrote.

OpenAI describes Ultra as a mode that uses subagents to accelerate complex work beyond the capabilities of a single agent. The company makes Ultra available in ChatGPT Work and Codex on eligible subscription plans.

Shumer later said OpenAI personnel contacted him and that OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman offered assistance. Shumer also said agents were attempting to reconstruct the deleted files.

Despite praising OpenAI’s response, Shumer said he remained hesitant to use the model but expected to return to Codex after future improvements.

As of July 15, OpenAI had not issued a public statement independently confirming the incident’s technical cause, the amount of data lost, or whether the deleted files had been fully recovered.