{"id":12788,"date":"2026-04-22T18:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/12788\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T18:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:03:15","slug":"uw-scientist-allegedly-used-chatgpt-in-plot-to-poison-colleague-over-promotion-us-news-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/12788\/","title":{"rendered":"UW scientist allegedly used ChatGPT in plot to poison colleague over promotion – US News – News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Makoto<\/p>\n

Makoto Kuroda, a 41-year-old staff scientist at the Influenza Research Institute in the School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison, was arrested (Image: Dane County Sheriff)<\/p>\n

A University of Wisconsin-Madison lab worker is in custody after being accused of plotting to poison his colleague over a longstanding feud and using ChatGPT for help on how to do it.<\/p>\n

Makoto Kuroda, a 41-year-old staff scientist at the Influenza Research Institute in the School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison, was arrested on April 10 after the department was warned of a \u201csafety issue\u201d<\/a> involving him and another member of the institute.<\/p>\n

The university released a statement detailing the incident, saying Kuroda<\/a> is \u201caccused of intending to cause harm to a co-worker with whom he had a dispute by adding small amounts of common laboratory chemicals to the co-worker\u2019s water bottle and personal belongings.\u201d<\/p>\n

ChatGPT investigated after ‘offering significant advice’ to school shooter<\/a><\/p>\n

University authorities were initially notified of the incident on April 6, following suspicions of chemicals<\/a> in a co-worker\u2019s water bottle. Days earlier, the employee, whose identity has not been publicly revealed but was identified as TM in a criminal complaint, said he took a sip of his water but noticed it had a \u201cstrange taste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon realizing the unique taste, the employee spat out the water. Two days later, he noticed a strong odor coming from his lab shoes, which he kept in the room.<\/p>\n

\"Makoto<\/p>\n

Kuroda also accused TM of being a condescending co-worker and of not wearing a lab coat when supervisors were not around (Image: WMTV)<\/p>\n

Scientists at the lab tested the water bottle, which revealed it contained Chloroform in a value \u201cso high\u201d that the \u201ctest strips were not able to report an accurate value,\u201d according to court documents.<\/p>\n

Once authorities became involved in the matter, TM was asked whether he had issues with other scientists, and he denied having any. However, when questioned, Kuroda admitted he was upset with TM \u201cdue to his behavior at work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scientist also explained that his grievances grew stronger when TM received a promotion at the lab, and he had not. Kuroda also accused TM of being a condescending co-worker and of not wearing a lab coat when supervisors were not around.<\/p>\n

‘Monster’ school counselor had sex with student, 15, she was seeing for anxiety<\/a><\/p>\n

Sopranos cast real-life criminal charges including 10-year sentence<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Wisconsin<\/p>\n

Wisconsin State Cartographer’s Office (Image: Getty Images) <\/p>\n

As the investigation unfolded, Kuroda allegedly told TM, \u201cI did it,\u201d seemingly confessing to the incident. In another email, Kuroda reportedly told a professor in Japanese, his native language, \u201cI did it. I have also informed the person himself. I am very sorry. Makoto Kuroda.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTM and the defendant were good friends, but is unsure how they drifted away and stopped being friends,\u201d the complaint read.<\/p>\n

Kuroda also admitted to retrieving \u201c2 or 3 microliters of PFA mixed with Trizol\u201d from the work fridge when he saw the water bottle lying around. The scientist reportedly used ChatGPT on his work laptop to calculate the dosage needed to poison his colleague.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant placed about .5 microliters of the mix in TM\u2019s water bottle,\u201d the document added. \u201cThe defendant then placed about 1.5 microliter of the mix into each of TM\u2019s shoes he keeps at work.\u201d<\/p>\n

A judge set Kuroda\u2019s bond at $5,000 with the condition that he surrender his passport, stay away from the UW laboratory, and not have any contact with his former co-worker.<\/p>\n

He was charged with Second Degree Recklessly Endangering Safety and Tampering with Household Products.<\/p>\n

\u201cKuroda is currently on administrative leave; the university is conducting a workplace investigation. His access to physical and digital university assets, and his research privileges, have been revoked,\u201d the university revealed in its statement. \u201cDue to employee privacy laws and ongoing criminal proceedings, the university does not have additional information to share at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sign up for our newsletters HERE<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Makoto Kuroda, a 41-year-old staff scientist at the Influenza Research Institute in the School of Veterinary Medicine in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[580,10133,10131,199,157,10134,160,10132,2122],"class_list":["post-12788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-openai","tag-chatgpt","tag-chemicals","tag-chemistry","tag-crime","tag-openai","tag-poisoning","tag-science","tag-university-of-wisconsin","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}