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A University of Wisconsin lab worker allegedly confessed to using ChatGPT to help plot the poisoning of his rival colleague over a longstanding grudge, according to authorities.
Makoto Kuroda, a 41-year-old staff scientist at the university’s Influenza Research Institute in the School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison, was charged with recklessly endangering safety and tampering with a household product, according to a criminal complaint obtained by The Post.
University police officers arrived at the lab on April 6 after receiving a report of possible chemicals discovered in an employee’s water bottle, the criminal complaint detailed.
That employee, identified in court documents by the initials TM, grew suspicious after taking a sip from a Trader Joe’s water bottle and spitting it out when he noticed “a strange taste,” the complaint said.
Two days later, he “observed this strange odor from his shoes” and believed it to be chloroform, court documents added.
Subsequent testing of TM’s water bottle revealed the water bottle had tested positive for Chloroform. The sample value was “so high” that the “test strips were not able to report an accurate value,” the complaint alleged.
Cops were called back to the research facility after Kuroda then went up to TM and admitted to the poisoning plot, authorities alleged.
Kuroda reportedly went up to TM and chillingly said, “I did it” before commenting on his shoes. The confession “scared” TM and caused him to flee into a co-worker’s office to report the incident.
“TM and the defendant were good friends, but is unsure how they drifted away and stopped
being friends,” the complaint read.
The aggrieved scientist also sent an email to a professor in Japanese, his native language, which read, “I did it. I have also informed the person himself. I am very sorry. Makoto Kuroda.”
Kuroda then allegedly told police that he had developed a longstanding grudge against TM over his behavior at work, including not following the “lab rule of wearing a lab coat and goggles.”
The colleagues, who began working together in 2017, were both promoted at work. But TM was promoted again, and Kuroda was not, he explained.
The alleged jealous lab worker grew resentful after feeling that TM “started treating subordinates as less than,” following his promotion, documents detailed.
Kuroda allegedly explained to police that he saw TM’s half-full bottle of water on April 5 and went to the lab to retrieve “2 or 3 microliters of PFA mixed with Trizol” from his work fridge.
“The defendant placed about .5 microliters of the mix in TM’s water bottle,” the document added. “The defendant then placed about 1.5 microliter of the mix into each of TM’s shoes he keeps at work.”
He also employed ChatGPT on his work laptop to calculate the dosage for the poisoning plot. Despite warning pop-ups on the AI platform about what he was researching, Kuroda said he did not reconsider his actions, the complaint alleged.
“My aim was just, he feel bad,” Kuroda allegedly told police.
After the confession, Kuroda was arrested and booked into jail on April 10, according to a police press release.
A judge set his bond at $5,000 on the condition that he doesn’t have any contact with TM, surrenders his passport, and stays away from any UW laboratory, court records showed
The University of Wisconsin told NBC News that Kuroda is on administrative leave and has had his research and digital and physical university privileges revoked while the school conducts a workplace investigation.
The university did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Kuroda will return to court on June 1.
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