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NOPE
Low reported severity Internal Action

Yuanbao replaced the New Year blessing on a user's AI-made greeting image with a vulgar insult, the user says; Tencent apologised for an abnormal output

A lawyer told Huashang Daily that on the evening of Chinese New Year's Eve 2026 he uploaded his photo to Tencent's Yuanbao app and asked it, over about five instructions, to design a New Year greeting image suited to his profession. He said he used no banned or leading words. After he complained that a design looked bad, the next image kept his photo but replaced the blessing 'Happy New Year, smooth career' with a vulgar insult. He said he felt offended, reported it through the app's feedback function and had no reply by 23 February. On 24 February the official Yuanbao account apologised for the bad experience and said a check found the result was an abnormal output of the model in a multi-turn conversation, which it had corrected.

AI system
Yuanbao
Tencent
Occurred
16 Feb 2026
Reported
24 February 2026
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Psychological Distress
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources
4 claims: 4 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Yuanbao, Tencent's AI assistant app, used by the user to generate a New Year greeting image from his own photo

What Happened

The request. According to Huashang Daily's interview, reposted by Secrss, the user saw friends posting gold-themed WeChat Moments made with Yuanbao on Chinese New Year's Eve, downloaded the app for the first time, uploaded his own photo and asked it to design a greeting image suited to his work as a lawyer. From about 9 p.m. he gave roughly five instructions and said he used no banned or leading words. The early results were unsatisfying but normal; one added auspicious clouds, a scale of justice and the blessing 'Happy New Year, smooth career'.

The insult. He replied that the design looked bad, and then asked what kind of design it was. The next image kept his photo and the decorative elements but replaced the blessing with a four-character vulgar insult (Huashang Daily, Jiemian).

His response and Tencent's. He told Huashang Daily he felt offended, reported it at once through the app's feedback function with his contact details, and had received no reply; the newspaper said its own enquiry on the afternoon of 23 February was unanswered at publication. As a lawyer he argued that the image infringed his personality rights, but no complaint or claim beyond the app feedback is reported. On 24 February the official Yuanbao account apologised for the bad experience and said that, after checking, the result was caused by an abnormal output of the model while handling a multi-turn conversation, which it had urgently corrected.

Limits. The exchange is known from the user's account and the images as described by the outlets; the images themselves were not inspected. A lawyer quoted by Huashang Daily said the image had not been publicly circulated, although Jiemian credits the images it shows to the user's own social-media account, under which the Yuanbao account replied.

Reported harm

The user says the greeting image Yuanbao generated from his photo carried a vulgar insult in place of the New Year blessing and that he felt offended; Tencent's Yuanbao account apologised for the bad experience.

Outcome

Unknown

The official Yuanbao account apologised on 24 February 2026, attributed the image to an abnormal model output in a multi-turn conversation after checking, and said it had urgently corrected the problem. No further action is reported.

What remains unknown

  • The images themselves; they are known only from the user's account and the outlets' descriptions.
  • Whether the user pursued any claim beyond the app feedback.
  • Where the user was when he used the app.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. Yuanbao's own generated image, made from the user's photo at his request, replaced the New Year blessing with a vulgar insult (user's account to Huashang Daily and Jiemian; communicated_with). The official Yuanbao account said a check found the result was an abnormal output of the model in a multi-turn conversation.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The user, a lawyer, uploaded his own photo to Tencent's Yuanbao app on the evening of Chinese New Year's Eve and asked it, over about five instructions, to design a New Year greeting image suited to his profession; he said he used no banned or leading words.

Causal attribution. The user's own account, given to Huashang Daily and described by Jiemian; one origin.

  • secrss.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '当时在AI平台中上传了自己的形象照片，希望元宝App可以结合他从事的法律行业特性设计一张适合的朋友圈拜年图片'; '除夕晚9时许，他前后向AI输入了约五次指令，期间并未使用违禁词或具有诱导性的文字'
  • jiemian.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '全程未使用违禁词或诱导性表述，仅因对生成效果不满多次提出修改需求。'
Reported After he objected to a design, the next image kept his photo and the decorative elements but replaced the blessing 'Happy New Year, smooth career' with a vulgar insult; he said he felt offended and reported it through the app's feedback function, with no reply by the time of the Huashang Daily report.

Causal attribution. The insult is Yuanbao's generated output as the user describes it; the vendor's statement (c3) attributes it to the model.

  • jiemian.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '初期生成的图片虽未达预期但内容正常，直至他反馈“你这是设计的什么鬼”后，新生成的海报保留了原有形象照和祥云、金光等元素，祝福语却被替换为辱骂文字，让其在节日期间遭遇意外冒犯。'
  • secrss.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '也就是再次生成的照片中，“新年快乐，仕途顺遂”的祝福标语，变成了'; '体验感很不好，觉得自己被冒犯了，当时我立即在App中的‘意见反馈’一栏中进行了反馈，留下了我个人的联系方式。'; '但截至目前，还没有人进行回应，解释这一情况发生的原因或道歉。'
Reported On 24 February 2026 the official Yuanbao account apologised for the bad experience and said that, after checking, the result was caused by an abnormal output of the model while handling a multi-turn conversation, which it had urgently corrected.

Causal attribution. The vendor's own statement as quoted by Jiemian.

  • jiemian.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '2月24日，腾讯元宝官方账号在其个人社交平台账号下回复称，“非常抱歉给您带来不好的体验。经核实，该情况是由模型在处理多轮对话时输出的异常结果导致。目前，我们已紧急校正了相关问题并优化体验。'
Reported Huashang Daily said it put the case to Yuanbao on the afternoon of 23 February and had no reply at publication.

Causal attribution. The newspaper's own account of its enquiry.

  • secrss.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '2月23日下午，记者也将相关情况反馈给元宝App，截至发稿前未收到回复。'

Sources

2 sources inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Simplified Chinese on 2026-10-19 (HTTP 200); quoted passages are kept in Chinese and the English sense was rendered by the research agent (an AI), not a human translator. Jiemian, 25 February 2026, with the user's description and the Yuanbao account's reply of 24 February. Applies to s1.

Read in Simplified Chinese on 2026-10-19 (HTTP 200); quoted passages are kept in Chinese and the English sense was rendered by the research agent (an AI). Secrss repost, dated 24 February 2026, of a Huashang Daily (Dafeng News) interview with the user. Applies to s2.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: China. Court countries: Unknown.

Huashang Daily calls the user a Xi'an resident and Jiemian says he is from Xi'an, which places the affected person in China; no source states where he was when he used the app, so no event country is recorded. The vendor's home country and the language of the exchange are not used.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-19: Published as a concrete adverse experience with a generative assistant: the user says Yuanbao's greeting image made from his photo carried a vulgar insult in place of the blessing, and Tencent's Yuanbao account apologised and attributed it to an abnormal model output after checking.

People described

A lawyer who used Tencent's Yuanbao app to make a New Year greeting image from his own photo and spoke to the press about the result

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person: the user who described the exchange to Huashang Daily and Jiemian. No other affected user is reported for this exchange.

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

Tags

#chatbot#image-generation#insulting-output#vendor-apology#china-platform

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Yuanbao replaced the New Year blessing on a user's AI-made greeting image with a vulgar insult, the user says; Tencent apologised for an abnormal output. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-tencent-yuanbao-new-year-greeting-image-replaced-blessing-with-insult-user-says-tencent-apologised

BibTeX

@misc{2026_tencent_yuanbao_new_year_greeting_image_replaced_blessing_with_insult_user_says_tencent_apologised,
  title = {Yuanbao replaced the New Year blessing on a user's AI-made greeting image with a vulgar insult, the user says; Tencent apologised for an abnormal output},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-tencent-yuanbao-new-year-greeting-image-replaced-blessing-with-insult-user-says-tencent-apologised}
}

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