[Python] Getting an error while mutating a matrix this way

I am trying to find the determinant of a 4x4 matrix using nested list operations. I gave the following code

def determinant_4x4(matrix: list[list[int|float]]) -> float:
# Your recursive implementation here
def recursedet(matrix):
if len(matrix) == 2:
return matrix[0][0]*matrix[1][1] - matrix[0][1]*matrix[1][0]

sum = 0
for i in range(len(matrix)):
ele = matrix[0]

del matrix[0]
for row in matrix:
del row

sum += ele*((-1)**i)*recursedet(matrix)

return sum

return recursedet(matrix)


But I am getting the error: IndexError: list index out of range

However, when I asked GPT to rectify this, it said that my code gave the same output as the rectified version but the matrix was corrupted. Can anybody help me understand what does this mean?

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