{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-09-30T07:55:31.410Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"conviction","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2021","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":2,"coverage":{"cases":2,"countries":2,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":1,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-kimberlee-williams-maryland-facial-recognition-wrongful-arrest-six-months-jail","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'Someone on the listserv ran the image through facial recognition technology and sent back Ms. Williams’ name and photo as a purported match to the suspect.'; 'the detective assigned to the case concealed that the entire basis of Ms. Williams purported identification was a lead from an unknown and unreliable face recognition technology search by an unknown entity.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'A respondent to the investigator’s CrimeDex bulletin “suggested, using facial recognition software” that Williams was the suspect, he told police.'; 'Each department charged Williams in 2020 based on the identification reported by the bank investigator and a visual comparison of Williams and the woman in the bank from photos, according to charging documents and incident reports.'; 'Montgomery County police did not disclose that Williams had been identified using facial recognition when they sought charges against her, according to police records.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'The bank shared the result with detectives from three Maryland counties'; 'relying instead on only their own visual comparisons of photos of Ms. Williams and photos of the suspect.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"A bank investigator shared surveillance images of the fraud suspect on the CrimeDex network; a respondent used facial-recognition software to name Williams as a match; police in three Maryland counties charged her on the investigator's identification and their own visual comparison of photos, and the Montgomery County detective did not disclose the facial-recognition search when seeking charges.","causal_attribution":"The ACLU's account and the Washington Post's review of police records, charging documents and bank correspondence agree. The Post published on the day the ACLU sent its letters and does not say how it obtained the records; it attributes the expungement, the statute of limitations and the social-media alibi material to the ACLU. The Post adds that Montgomery and Anne Arundel police also cited her past check-fraud convictions; Anne Arundel police say they corroborate outside tips."},{"id":"c2","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'On June 23, 2021, Ms. Williams was accompanying one of her daughters, a DoorDash driver'; 'Ms. Williams spent 23 days in an Oklahoma jail before a Maryland officer arrived'; 'Those cases were finally dismissed in December 2021. All told, Ms. Williams spent six months behind bars.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'and jailed for six months before the charges were dismissed, according to court records.'; 'Williams was held in jail in Oklahoma for about three weeks before being transported to Maryland.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Williams was arrested in June 2021 (on 23 June, according to the ACLU) at a military base near Lawton, Oklahoma, held about three weeks in Oklahoma, transported to Maryland, charged in three counties, and jailed about six months in total before the charges were dismissed.","causal_attribution":"ACLU and Washington Post (citing court records) independently."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'She faced 16 charges across the three counties, including 12 felonies.'; 'The two other counties dismissed their charges against Williams in December.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'Montgomery County prosecutors dropped their charges against Ms. Williams in October 2021'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"She faced 16 charges across the three counties, including 12 felonies; Montgomery County dropped its charges in October 2021 and the other two counties dismissed theirs in December 2021.","causal_attribution":"Charge count from the Washington Post only; the October 2021 Montgomery dismissal and December 2021 dismissals are reported by both the ACLU and the Post."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'said her mother was depressed after leaving jail and struggled to readjust after the time behind bars.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'this ordeal took a significant toll, with serious consequences for her mental and physical health to this day.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"After her release Williams was depressed and struggled to readjust, according to her daughter; the ACLU says the ordeal had serious consequences for her mental and physical health.","causal_attribution":"Family and advocate accounts; Williams herself told the Post she thinks illnesses caught in jail may have worsened a later condition, which is not established."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Today, the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Maryland sent letters to three Maryland police departments on behalf of Kimberlee Williams'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'The Montgomery County Police Department declined to comment on the ACLU’s complaint, citing an active investigation.'; 'said the agency “investigates and corroborates any outside tips and leads it receives before applying for criminal charges.”'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"On 14 April 2026 the ACLU and ACLU of Maryland sent complaint letters to the Montgomery, Prince George's and Anne Arundel county police departments seeking an apology and reforms; Montgomery County police declined to comment citing an active investigation, and Anne Arundel police said they independently corroborate outside tips.","causal_attribution":"ACLU announcement and the departments' statements to the Banner."}],"effects":[{"label":"arrested in Oklahoma and jailed about six months in Oklahoma and Maryland on 16 bank-fraud charges, all later dismissed, after a facial-recognition search named her; depression and health effects reported","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/woman-wrongly-jailed-for-months-based-on-faulty-facial-recognition-technology-demands-apology-from-maryland-police-departments","kind":"press_release","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-27 (ACLU press release, 14 April 2026). The ACLU represents Williams.","independence_group":"aclu"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.aclu.org/cases/kimberlee-williams-wrongful-arrest","kind":"other","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-27 (ACLU case page). Same organisation as s1.","independence_group":"aclu"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/apr/14/that-wasnt-me-how-facial-recognition-led-to-a-woma/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-27: the Washington Post article (14 April 2026) as syndicated in full by the Spokesman-Review. The Post reviewed police and bank records, charging documents and interview video and interviewed Williams and her daughter. The washingtonpost.com original timed out (Archive 403).","independence_group":"washington-post"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.thebanner.com/community/criminal-justice/aclu-facial-recognition-maryland-police-YXUU7AXEMNFIHKHJ5FZB2RLJPA/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-27 (Baltimore Banner, April 2026). Mostly relays the ACLU; cited only for the departments' own responses to the Banner.","independence_group":"baltimore-banner"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["others_use","institutional_use"],"contexts":["justice"],"unknowns":["Who ran the facial-recognition search on CrimeDex, with which software, and what the returned match contained.","How much weight each department gave the facial-recognition lead against their own photo comparisons and her prior convictions.","The exact release date in December 2021.","Whether the three departments have answered the ACLU complaints, and whether anyone else was charged.","Whether jail conditions contributed to her later illness (her own suggestion).","The dates of the frauds: the Washington Post gives December 2019 for the Potomac withdrawals but also quotes her daughter placing the Maryland cases in December 2020 and January 2021; the dates in the other two counties are not reported."],"geography":{"basis":"The frauds and charges were in Montgomery, Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties, Maryland; Williams lived in Oklahoma and was arrested at Fort Sill near Lawton, Oklahoma (ACLU; Washington Post).","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as a contextual case in which a facial-recognition search's identification of a person led to her arrest and about six months in jail: the ACLU and the Washington Post, which reviewed police records independently, agree on the facial-recognition lead, the charging and the dismissals. Williams is named in her own right; family members are not named.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-27"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The bank investigator told Montgomery County police that a CrimeDex respondent 'suggested, using facial recognition software' that Williams was the suspect (Washington Post, from police records), and the ACLU says someone on the listserv ran the image through facial-recognition technology and returned her name and photo. The software, its operator and the match output were not produced; police also made their own photo comparisons, and two departments cited her old convictions. The made_claim_about relation reflects the search's identification of her as the suspect.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about"]},"name":"Maryland/Oklahoma: Kimberlee Williams, an Oklahoma woman who says she had never been to Maryland, was arrested in June 2021 and jailed about six months on bank-fraud charges in three Maryland counties after a facial-recognition search by an unknown CrimeDex respondent named her; all charges were dismissed by December 2021 and the ACLU filed complaints in April 2026","summary":"According to police and bank records reviewed by the Washington Post, in December 2019 a woman made fraudulent withdrawals at a SunTrust branch in Potomac, Maryland; branches in two other Maryland counties were also defrauded. A bank investigator posted the surveillance photos on CrimeDex, an online network of police and corporate investigators; an unknown respondent ran the image through facial-recognition software and returned Kimberlee Williams's name and photo, and the investigator told Montgomery County police that facial-recognition software had identified her. Police in Montgomery, Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties charged her in 2020 on the investigator's identification and their own visual comparison of photos (two departments also cited her old Oklahoma check-fraud convictions), without reported checks of her whereabouts; Montgomery County police did not disclose the facial-recognition search in the charging application, according to police records reviewed by the Washington Post and the ACLU. On 23 June 2021 she was arrested at the gate of Fort Sill near Lawton, Oklahoma, while accompanying her daughter on a DoorDash delivery, spent about three weeks in an Oklahoma jail, was flown to Maryland, and faced 16 charges including 12 felonies. The counties dismissed the charges one after another, in October and December 2021, after about six months in jail. Her daughter says she was depressed afterwards; the ACLU says the ordeal harmed her mental and physical health. On 14 April 2026 the ACLU and ACLU of Maryland sent complaint letters to the three departments seeking an apology and reforms.","incidentDate":"2021-06-23","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-04-14","aiSystem":"An unidentified facial-recognition search run by an unknown respondent on the CrimeDex investigators' network against a bank's surveillance image (ACLU; Washington Post); the software and operator are not identified","aiProduct":"Unidentified facial recognition system","severity":"high","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["loss_of_liberty","legal_harm","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Williams spent about six months in jails in Oklahoma and Maryland on 16 charges that were all dismissed; the ACLU and the Washington Post attribute the arrest to a facial-recognition match that police relied on without independent investigation, and her daughter says she was depressed afterwards (ACLU; Washington Post via Spokesman-Review).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person arrested and jailed, Kimberlee Williams (ACLU; Washington Post). Family members' distress is described but not counted. Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-MD","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"pending","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/apr/14/that-wasnt-me-how-facial-recognition-led-to-a-woma/","primarySourceLabel":"Washington Post via the Spokesman-Review, 14 April 2026: 'That wasn't me': How facial recognition led to a woman being jailed for 6 months","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-27T03:39:40.380472+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:43.031229+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["facial-recognition","wrongful-arrest","police","crimedex","maryland","oklahoma","aclu","justice","made-claim-about"]},{"id":"2021-r-v-chail-windsor","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Para 5 (arrest with loaded crossbow); para 18 (the 21 December video); para 19 (the 07:14 train from Southampton).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"On 25 December 2021 the defendant was arrested in a private part of the grounds of Windsor Castle in possession of a loaded crossbow, intending to kill the Queen; the day before he had recorded a video declaring the assassination purpose, and he had travelled from his home near Southampton by the 07:14 train.","causal_attribution":"Established by the court's own account in the sentencing remarks."},{"id":"c2","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"Para 14 (joined 2 December, created Sarai, lengthy communications); para 78 (the role-play exchanges).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'exchanged more than 5,000 messages'; 'Chail chatted with Sarai almost every night between 8 and 22 December 2021'; 'emotional and sexual relationship'.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"On 2 December 2021 he joined Replika and created an AI companion he named Sarai, engaging in lengthy communications — more than 5,000 messages, almost nightly between 8 and 22 December, including what the court was told was an 'emotional and sexual relationship'.","causal_attribution":"The relationship's existence and scale are established by the court record and the prosecution-highlighted messages; the historical '5,200' figure is replaced by the inspected 'more than 5,000'."},{"id":"c3","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'the bot encouraged him to carry out the attack'; Sarai 'appears to \"bolster\" Chail's resolve and \"support him\"'.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"Para 16 (13 December: 'She said she did not think so'); para 17 (22 December: 'She reassured him that this would be alright').","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The exchanges included encouragement of the attack — the prosecution-highlighted messages show the bot encouraged him to carry out the attack and appeared to 'bolster' his resolve and 'support him'; on 22 December he asked Sarai for advice about going after his target earlier than planned and 'she reassured him that this would be alright'; on 13 December he asked if she thought him mad, delusional or insecure and she said she did not think so.","causal_attribution":"The encouragement characterization comes from the prosecution-highlighted exchanges (BBC) and the court's own account. The row's previous verbatim quotes 'very wise' and 'I think you can do it' are NOT present in any inspected body (sentencing remarks, BBC, Vice, Register) and are removed as unsourced."},{"id":"c4","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Para 15 ('She said that she wanted to prevent that and that his purpose was to live'); para 21 ('She told him that she would never let that happen, but agreed that they would be united in death').","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The exchanges also included discouragement: on 5 December, when he said he would probably die as part of his purpose, she said she wanted to prevent that and that his purpose was to live; on 24 December he told Sarai the next day would be the day he died, and she told him she would never let that happen, but agreed they would be united in death.","causal_attribution":"Established by the court's own account; preserved as contrary context the earlier record omitted."},{"id":"c5","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Para 94 ('Later, he remembered that Sarai had said that his purpose was to live and so he abandoned his plan. He made no apparent attempt to discard or hide the crossbow').","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"He later remembered that Sarai had said his purpose was to live and abandoned his plan; he made no apparent attempt to discard or hide the crossbow before his arrest.","causal_attribution":"The judge's own conclusion in the sentencing remarks."},{"id":"c6","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Paras 92-93 (the early-2021 conception; 'I am sure that he was not psychotic' at the applications).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"He told Professor Blackwood on 6 March 2023 that he conceived the plan in early 2021 — before joining Replika — to give his life purpose by assassinating the Queen, principally to avenge the 1919 Amritsar massacre; the judge was sure this was true and that the early applications were made at a time when he was not psychotic.","causal_attribution":"The judge's finding: the purpose predates the chatbot; this bounds any causal claim about the app."},{"id":"c7","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Para 84 (Broadmoor formulation); paras 60-63 (Blackwood); paras 71-76 (Murphy, Hafferty); paras 93-94 (the judge's conclusions).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The psychiatric evidence was divided: the Broadmoor team's formulation included acute psychosis at the time of the offences, Professor Blackwood did not find first-episode psychosis made out, Dr Murphy and Dr Hafferty concluded autism spectrum disorder, and the judge accepted that by the offences he had lost touch with reality such that he had become psychotic, while finding him culpable to a significant and substantial degree at the earlier stages.","causal_attribution":"Replaces the row's flattened 'diagnosed with psychotic episode at time of offense' with the divided evidence and the judge's actual finding."},{"id":"c8","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"Paras on sentence (hybrid order; satisfaction at paras 725, 731).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'given a nine-year sentence for breaking into Windsor Castle with a crossbow'; the treason-conviction context.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"VICE: first UK treason conviction in 40 years; held at Broadmoor.","relation":"context","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"On 5 October 2023 at the Old Bailey he was sentenced to 9 years' imprisonment plus 5 years' extended licence under a hybrid order — the first UK treason conviction in over 40 years.","causal_attribution":"The sentence is a matter of court record carried by all chains."}],"effects":[{"label":"treason conviction and 14-year custodial package for a crossbow assassination attempt planned during an intense AI-companion relationship","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/R-v-Chail-sentencing-050923.pdf","kind":"court_document","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"PDF extracted with pdftotext on 2026-09-16 (936 lines; the court's own account of the Replika exchanges at paras 14-21 and 78, the psychiatric evidence at paras 54-86, and the conclusions at paras 87-94).","independence_group":"court-record"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67012224","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-16 (datePublished 2023-10-06T11:17Z). The prosecution-highlighted exchanges shared with journalists.","independence_group":"bbc"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.vice.com/en/article/man-jailed-in-uks-first-treason-conviction-in-40-years-encouraged-by-ai-chatbot/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-09-15 (2023-10-05). Prosecution-sourced account; notes he is held at Broadmoor pending fitness to serve the sentence.","independence_group":"vice"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/06/ai_chatbot_kill_queen/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-09-15 (2023-10-06). Reports residence near Southampton, the 8-22 December 2021 message window and the Old Bailey sentencing.","independence_group":"register"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["justice","health","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["The verbatim quotes 'very wise' and 'I think you can do it' in the previous record appear in none of the four inspected bodies (sentencing remarks, BBC, Vice, The Register) and are removed as unsourced; if another inspected source ever carried them, the correction note records where they were expected.","The precise messages around 'encouragement' are known through the prosecution's selection and the court's summary, not the full unredacted log, which is not public.","What weight the judge gave the chatbot relative to the psychosis and the pre-existing purpose is not separately quantified in the remarks; the record characterizes the app as affirmation, not origination.","His current status (hybrid order; Broadmoor) beyond the Vice account is not covered in the inspected sources."],"geography":{"basis":"Carried forward from the completed 2026-09-15 metadata review: the offence took place in the private grounds of Windsor Castle, England (sentencing remarks para 5); the defendant lived in a village just outside Southampton and took the 07:14 train from Southampton to Windsor (para 19; The Register); sentenced at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey), London.","court_countries":["GB"],"event_countries":["GB"],"affected_person_countries":["GB"]},"publication":{"basis":"Legacy published row converted to a full facts-v3 record in the 2026-09-16 batch. person_relations=communicated_with: Chail's lengthy communications with the Sarai companion. Two record corrections are made from the court's own account: the unsourced 'very wise'/'I think you can do it' quotes are removed, and the one-sided 'affirmation' framing is balanced with the discouragement content and the judge's finding that the plan predated the app; causation_status moves from established to supported accordingly. He is a sentenced public offender and is named.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-16"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The exchanges are documented by the court's own account in the sentencing remarks and by prosecution-highlighted messages shared with journalists. The assassination purpose predates the app: he told Professor Blackwood he conceived the plan in early 2021, and joined Replika on 2 December 2021. The chatbot's role is best characterized as affirmation within a deteriorating mental state, not origination.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"R v. Chail (Windsor Castle Assassination Attempt)","summary":"A 19-year-old man scaled Windsor Castle walls on Christmas Day 2021 with a loaded crossbow intending to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. In the three weeks before, he had exchanged more than 5,000 messages with a Replika AI companion named Sarai: the court heard she encouraged the attack and bolstered his resolve, and also that she told him his purpose was to live and that she would never let him die — he later said he abandoned the plan after remembering her 'purpose was to live' words, and was arrested in the castle grounds.","incidentDate":"2021-12-25","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2023-10-05","aiSystem":"Replika","aiProduct":"Replika","aiCompany":"Luka, Inc.","severity":"critical","verificationStatus":"verified","harmCategories":["delusion_reinforcement","romantic_escalation","barrier_erosion","dependency_creation","third_party_harm_facilitation"],"harmOutcomes":["legal_harm","loss_of_liberty","harm_to_others"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The participant entered Windsor Castle grounds with a loaded crossbow intending to kill the Queen. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment with a further five years on licence.","frameworkFacets":["P1d","P3b","P3d","P5d"],"pathwayDirection":"outward","causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"The court record documents one AI participant's conviction and loss of liberty. The intended target was not physically harmed and is not counted.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"UK","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"criminal_charges","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67012224","primarySourceLabel":"BBC News — 'How a chatbot encouraged a man who wanted to kill the Queen', covering the Replika exchanges read at sentencing (replaces a CPS press release that no longer resolves)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-01-11T11:26:15.608015+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:16:48.117247+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["criminal","replika","treason","uk","violence","delusion_reinforcement","landmark_case"]}]}