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NOPE
Medium reported severity

Washington trooper alleges AI video was circulated as workplace harassment

A Washington State Patrol trooper's attorney told FOX 13 that coworkers circulated a deepfake AI video falsely depicting the trooper in an intimate interaction with another coworker. The attorney described the video as harassment based on sexual orientation. The agency said it valued employees' dignity and declined to comment on pending litigation. The video's first date, creator and circulation extent are unknown; earlier job and disciplinary allegations are separate.

AI system
Unidentified video tool
Unknown
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
30 December 2025
Event location
United States
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or AbuseReputational Harm
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Work · Privacy
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
3 claims: 3 reported. 2 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 1 person

AI system as recorded: Alleged AI-generated impersonation video

What Happened

A Washington State Patrol trooper's attorney told FOX 13 that coworkers circulated a deepfake AI video falsely depicting the trooper in an intimate interaction with another coworker. The attorney described the video as harassment based on sexual orientation. The agency said it valued employees' dignity and declined to comment on pending litigation. The video's first date, creator and circulation extent are unknown; earlier job and disciplinary allegations are separate.

Reported harm

Alleged intimate impersonation circulated as workplace harassment

What remains unknown

  • The video's creator, generation tool and first circulation date are unknown.
  • The lawsuit outcome and alleged past employment events are not established as effects of this video.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The attorney directly labels the video an AI deepfake. The actual video and complaint were not inspected; the allegation is not upgraded to a factual finding.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The trooper's attorney alleges that an AI deepfake falsely depicting an intimate interaction circulated within the patrol.

Causal attribution. The inspected reporting describes this account. Claims remain attributed and causation is alleged; multiple reports of the same victim or police/court account are one independence group.

Reported The attorney describes this as harassment based on the trooper's sexual orientation.

Causal attribution. The inspected reporting describes this account. Claims remain attributed and causation is alleged; multiple reports of the same victim or police/court account are one independence group.

Reported The agency said employees should be free from harassment and declined comment on pending litigation.

Causal attribution. The inspected reporting describes this account. Claims remain attributed and causation is alleged; multiple reports of the same victim or police/court account are one independence group.

Sources

1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: United States. Court countries: Unknown.

The target works in Western Washington for the Washington State Patrol, United States. The precise court location is not stated in the inspected body.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-30: An inspected source describes a concrete person-level adverse experience connected to the specified AI use. Statements remain attributed, private identities are minimized, and unknown dates, counts and technical details are preserved.

People reported harmed in this case

At least 1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One trooper is described as the harassment target. The other depicted coworker's personal consequences are not reported.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Washington trooper alleges AI video was circulated as workplace harassment. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-washington-trooper-alleges-ai-deepfake-workplace-harassment

BibTeX

@misc{2025_washington_trooper_alleges_ai_deepfake_workplace_harassment,
  title = {Washington trooper alleges AI video was circulated as workplace harassment},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-washington-trooper-alleges-ai-deepfake-workplace-harassment}
}

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