ChatGPT erased two years of a professor’s work with one click — and there was no way back

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A professor learned a harsh lesson about AI when ChatGPT accidentally deleted two years of his research with just one click. Even more concerning, OpenAI was unable to recover the lost work. This highlights that while AI can be helpful, it also carries significant risks.

Nearly everyone now lives in a digital world. We’ve moved past relying on things like paper files and flash drives to store important information.

These days, most people prefer using modern data backup solutions like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or Apple’s iCloud. However, many have discovered that even these services aren’t perfect and can have issues.

Recently, a software engineer almost permanently lost a decade of their work stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS), but a helpful AWS employee was able to recover it. In a similar situation, a OneDrive user found themselves unable to access three decades of photos and files, and Microsoft support offered no assistance.

A recent post by Marcel Bucher, a plant science professor at the University of Cologne in Germany, details a surprising loss: ChatGPT mistakenly incorporated two years of his work – including grant proposals, lesson plans, and manuscript drafts – into its responses, as reported in the journal Nature.

The professor shared that they subscribe to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus and have been using it for a variety of tasks, including writing emails, developing course outlines, preparing grant proposals, editing papers, creating lectures and exams, analyzing student work, and even as a helpful, interactive resource.

According to the professor:

I knew that tools like ChatGPT can sound very sure of themselves even when they’re wrong, so I didn’t trust its answers as facts. Instead, I focused on the fact that the system itself seemed consistent and stable.

The professor explained he was testing if users could still use all of the model’s features even if they turned off data sharing, without actually giving up their data.

Suddenly, all my chats vanished, and my project folders became completely empty—effectively erasing two years of careful research. There was no warning, no chance to recover anything, just a blank screen. Luckily, I had saved bits and pieces of some of my work, but a significant amount was lost permanently.

Professor Marcel Bucher

Okay, so the professor first thought something had gone wrong with the system, and he was really worried he’d lost all his data. He checked everywhere – different browsers, all his devices, even on different networks – to be sure. He tried everything you can think of to fix it – clearing the cache, reinstalling the app, messing with the settings… but nothing worked, sadly. It was a total dead end.

He tried reaching out to OpenAI for help, but initially received a response from an automated AI. After several tries, he finally connected with a real person, but they were unable to recover his lost data.

While speaking to Nature, OpenAI indicated that:

We show users a confirmation message before they permanently delete a chat. Unfortunately, once a chat is deleted, we can’t restore it – not through the app, our systems, or even with help from our support team. This is because we prioritize user privacy and follow legal guidelines for handling data.

For data protection, we always recommend users maintain personal backups for professional work.”

I don’t believe ChatGPT is fully safe for professional work, based on my experience. I recently lost years of work with a single accidental click. As a paying user (€20/month or $23), I expected some basic safeguards – like a warning before permanent deletion, a way to recover lost work for a limited time, and data backups – but none of those seem to exist.

This situation highlights how crucial it is to have multiple backups of your data. While saving data to the cloud is good, it’s even better to also keep a physical backup, just in case.

The feeling of losing years of work in an instant is devastating and unforgettable. With artificial intelligence playing a bigger role in how we work, these kinds of incidents will push businesses to improve their data security—or they risk losing the confidence of their users.

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2026-01-26 19:10