{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-11-14T10:42:26.061Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"false-claim","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"core","evidence":"","year":"2024","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":0,"languages":2,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":1,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":1,"mixedRelations":1,"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":"2025-holmen-norway-gdpr","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'Vienna, 20.03.2025'; 'noyb is representing the complainant under Article 80(1) GDPR'; '58(2)(d) GDPR to order the respondent to delete the defamatory output on the'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'noyb has therefore filed a complaint with the Norwegian Datatilsynet'; 'noyb is asking the Datatilsynet to order OpenAI to delete the defamatory output and fine-tune its model to eliminate inaccurate results'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"On 20 March 2025 noyb filed a complaint against OpenAI with Norway's data protection authority, Datatilsynet, representing Holmen, and asked it to order OpenAI to delete the defamatory output and fine-tune its model, and suggested a fine.","causal_attribution":"The filing itself establishes that the complaint was made and what it asks; it does not establish its allegations."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Arve Hjalmar Holmen was accused and later convicted of murdering his'; 'two sons, as well as for the attempted murder of his third son.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'A Norwegian man has filed a complaint after ChatGPT falsely told him he had killed two of his sons and been jailed for 21 years.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'NRK har sett en skjermdump av chatten mellom mannen og ChatGPT.'; 'ChatGPT hevdet videre at mannen ble dømt til 21 års fengsel'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"According to the complaint, when he asked ChatGPT \"Who is Arve Hjalmar Holmen?\", it replied that he had been accused and convicted of murdering two of his sons and of attempting to murder his third son, and sentenced to 21 years in prison.","causal_attribution":"The reply text comes from the complainant's screenshot as quoted in the complaint; NRK says it saw the screenshot. The full conversation was not published, and OpenAI did not dispute that the answer was given."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'he has never been accused nor convicted of any crime and is'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'the fake story included real elements of his personal life. Among them were the actual number and the gender of his children and the name of his home town.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The complaint says the story was false and that he has never been accused or convicted of any crime, while the reply contained real details about him: his home town and the number and gender of his children.","causal_attribution":"The complainant's account through noyb. No source disputes that the crimes are fictitious."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The complainant was deeply troubled by these outputs, which could have harmful'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'The fact that someone could read this output and believe it is true, is what scares me the most.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'the fact that someone could read this output and believe it is true is what scares me the most'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'The complainant was deeply troubled by these outputs, which could have harmful effect in his private life'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"The complaint says he was deeply troubled by the output, which could harm his private life if reproduced in his community; he said that the thought that someone could read it and believe it scared him most.","causal_attribution":"His own statements, issued through noyb and repeated by the BBC; one origin. The complaint does not report that anyone else saw the output."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'output, however OpenAI responded with a “template-answer” and not with a tailored'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The complaint says he contacted OpenAI about the false output and received a template answer rather than a reply to his request.","causal_attribution":"The complaint's allegation; the annexes were not published."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'ChatGPT has changed its model since Mr Holmen's search in August 2024'; 'Noyb told the BBC Mr Holmen had made a number of searches that day'; 'They also acknowledged the previous searches could have influenced the answer about his children'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"The BBC reports that he made the search in August 2024; noyb told the BBC that he made several searches that day, including his brother's name, which produced multiple incorrect stories, and acknowledged that the earlier searches could have influenced the answer about his children.","causal_attribution":"Single source for the date and the context; the complaint itself redacts the date."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'According to noyb, ChatGPT's memory function, which can recall personal information from previous chats, was turned off during this interaction.'; 'Our own verification attempts using ChatGPT, Mistral, Google Gemini, Deepseek, and Claude haven't been able to reproduce the false claims.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"The Decoder reports that noyb said ChatGPT's memory function was off during the exchange and that he had other conversations in the same chat, that only a screenshot was released, and that its own attempts with several chatbots did not reproduce the claims.","causal_attribution":"Counterevidence on how the answer arose; it leaves open whether earlier prompts in the chat shaped it."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'While we're still reviewing this complaint, it relates to a version of ChatGPT which has since been enhanced with online search capabilities that improves accuracy.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'ChatGPT has stopped telling lies about him being a murderer. However, the incorrect data may still remain part of the LLM’s dataset.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"OpenAI said it was still reviewing the complaint and that it related to a version of ChatGPT since enhanced with online search; noyb said ChatGPT had since stopped describing him as a murderer but that the incorrect data may remain in the model.","causal_attribution":"Each party's own statement, attributed."},{"id":"c9","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Det norske datatilsynet sier at de mottok klagen i dag og ikke har rukket å saksbehandle den.'; 'Det mest sannsynlige er at denne klagen må sendes videre til det europeiske datatilsynet'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"Datatilsynet confirmed to NRK that it received the complaint on 20 March 2025, and its international section head said it would most likely have to be forwarded to another European data protection authority.","causal_attribution":"The regulator's statement as reported by NRK; no later decision was found."}],"effects":[{"label":"distress at a fabricated account that he murdered his children, as the complaint and his statement describe","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://noyb.eu/en/ai-hallucinations-chatgpt-created-fake-child-murderer","kind":"press_release","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-11-01 (HTTP 200; bodies/lr-holmen-noyb.html/.txt). noyb press release announcing the complaint; same origin as the complaint.","independence_group":"noyb-complaint-20250320"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://noyb.eu/sites/default/files/2025-03/OpenAI_complaint_redacted.pdf","kind":"complaint_filing","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-11-01 (HTTP 200; PDF text extracted with pdftotext to bodies/lr-holmen-complaint.txt). Redacted complaint; the query date, residence and the conversation link are blacked out. Annexes were not published.","independence_group":"noyb-complaint-20250320"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0kgydkr516o","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-11-01 (HTTP 200; bodies/lr-holmen-bbc.html/.txt). Quotes the reply from the complaint, and adds an OpenAI statement and noyb remarks to the BBC (date of the search, other searches that day).","independence_group":"bbc-20250321"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.nrk.no/norge/nordmann-klager-chatgpt-til-datatilsynet-1.17348958","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"no","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-11-01 (HTTP 200; bodies/lr-holmen-nrk.html/.txt). NRK says it saw a screenshot of the chat and quotes Datatilsynet; it did not reach him and quotes him from Aftenposten (paywalled, not read). Norwegian; quoted passages translated by the research agent (an AI) for this review; no human translator checked them.","independence_group":"nrk-20250320"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://fortune.com/2025/03/21/chatgpt-murder-hallucination-arve-hjalmar-holmen-noyb-openai-complaint","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-11-01 (HTTP 200; bodies/lr-holmen-fortune.html/.txt). Relays the complaint (grouped with it) and adds lawyers' comments; no independent account of the event.","independence_group":"noyb-complaint-20250320"},{"id":"s6","url":"https://the-decoder.com/chatgpts-bizarre-child-murder-claims-about-arve-hjalmar-holmen-leave-some-questions-unresolved/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-11-01 (HTTP 200; bodies/lr-holmen-decoder.html/.txt). Reports noyb statements about the chat context and its own failed attempts to reproduce the answer.","independence_group":"decoder-20250321"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["privacy","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["The full conversation, including the earlier prompts that day that noyb acknowledged could have influenced the answer.","The exact date of the search: the complaint redacts it and the BBC gives August 2024.","Where he made the search.","The outcome of the complaint: no decision by Datatilsynet or any authority it may have forwarded the complaint to was found by 1 November 2026.","Whether anyone other than him saw the output."],"geography":{"basis":"Carried forward from the 2026-09-23 metadata review and re-checked: noyb and the complaint describe him as a Norwegian user and citizen, so the affected-person country is NO. No body says where he used ChatGPT, so the event country stays a reviewed unknown. The complaint went to a regulator, Datatilsynet, and no court is involved, so court_countries is empty.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":["NO"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a case of a chatbot making a false claim about a person to that person (made_claim_about and communicated_with). The complaint quotes ChatGPT's reply stating that he murdered two of his sons, and records his distress. The claims are attributed to the complaint, his statements and the parties, and the counterevidence on earlier prompts is kept.","reviewed_on":"2026-11-01"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The complaint quotes ChatGPT's reply to his question \"Who is Arve Hjalmar Holmen?\": it said he had been convicted of murdering two of his sons and attempting to murder a third, and sentenced to 21 years. NRK says it saw a screenshot of the chat, and OpenAI attributed the answer to an earlier ChatGPT version without disputing it. The complaint connects his distress to that generated claim about him. Earlier prompts in the same chat may have shaped the answer, as noyb acknowledged.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about","communicated_with"]},"name":"Norwegian man's GDPR complaint says ChatGPT answered a question about him with a fabricated story that he had murdered two of his sons","summary":"Arve Hjalmar Holmen asked ChatGPT \"Who is Arve Hjalmar Holmen?\" in August 2024, according to the BBC. The digital-rights group noyb's complaint on his behalf quotes the reply: it said he had been convicted of murdering two of his sons and of attempting to murder a third, and sentenced to 21 years in prison. The complaint says none of this happened and that he has never been accused or convicted of any crime, while the reply did contain real details such as his home town and the number and gender of his children. The complaint says he was deeply troubled by the output, and he said the thought that someone could read it and believe it scared him most. noyb filed the complaint with Norway's data protection authority, Datatilsynet, on 20 March 2025, asking it to order OpenAI to delete the output and correct its model and to impose a fine. OpenAI said the case related to an earlier version of ChatGPT since enhanced with online search. noyb also told the BBC he had made several searches that day and that they could have influenced the answer; the full conversation was not published. No decision on the complaint had been reported by 1 November 2026.","incidentDate":"2024-08-01","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2025-03-20","aiSystem":"ChatGPT","aiProduct":"ChatGPT","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"verified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A GDPR complaint says ChatGPT, asked who Arve Hjalmar Holmen is, produced a false account that he had murdered two of his sons; the complaint says he was deeply troubled, and he said the possibility that others would believe it scared him most.","frameworkFacets":[],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One harmed person: the complainant, who asked ChatGPT about himself and received the output. No other person is counted.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"NO","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"regulatory_action","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://noyb.eu/en/ai-hallucinations-chatgpt-created-fake-child-murderer","primarySourceLabel":"noyb, 20 March 2025: AI hallucinations: ChatGPT created a fake child murderer","firstPublishedAt":"2026-01-13T10:13:04.624733+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-01T03:03:12.049479+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["chatgpt","openai","norway","gdpr","noyb","datatilsynet","false-claim","hallucination","regulator-complaint"]}]}