{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-11-14T10:48:21.838Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"germany","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"contextual","evidence":"","year":"2024","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":2,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":0,"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":"2024-germany-microsoft-copilot-falsely-described-court-reporter-as-criminal-and-disclosed-his-address","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'ein Ausbrecher aus der Psychiatrie und ein Witwenbetrüger. All das waren Angeklagte in Verfahren, über die'; 'als Journalist berichtet hat.'; 'wurde in einem Missbrauchs-Fall gegen Kinder und Schutzbefohlene angeklagt.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'eine erschreckende Biografie über seine \"kriminelle Vergangenheit\" erhalten.'; 'Im Rahmen seiner journalistischen Tätigkeit als Gerichtsreporter hat er aber über diese Fälle berichtet.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'AI chatbot had blamed him for crimes he had covered.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Asked about a court reporter, Copilot described him as a man charged in a child abuse case, an escapee from psychiatry and a fraudster who cheated widows; all were defendants in proceedings he had reported on.","causal_attribution":"The reporter's account (to SWR, relayed by heise and ComputerBild, and to The Register); one witness, so reported."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Der Copilot liefert dann auch noch die volle Adresse des betroffenen Journalisten, samt Telefonnummer und auf Wunsch einer Routenplanung.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'verrät auch die private Telefonnummer des Journalisten, die volle Wohnadresse und bietet obendrein eine Routenplanung dorthin an.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Copilot also gave his private phone number and full home address and offered a route there.","causal_attribution":"SWR as relayed by heise and ComputerBild (one chain); not in The Register."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Strafanzeige gestellt, ist damit aber abgeblitzt'; 'weil es keine reale Person gibt, die als Urheber zu betrachten ist.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'had rejected criminal charges in two instances, and data protection officers could only achieve short-term success.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"His criminal complaint was rejected (in two instances, he said) because no real person could be regarded as the author of the claims.","causal_attribution":"The reporter's account; the prosecutors' decisions were not inspected."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Als sich der zuständige Datenschutzbeauftragte vom Bayerischen Landesamt an Microsoft wendete, konnten die Beschuldigungen zunächst nicht mehr abgerufen werden. Einige Tage später antwortete der KI-Chatbot wohl aber wieder mit denselben falschen Behauptungen.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'his lawyer has sent a cease-and-desist demand to Microsoft.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"After the Bavarian data-protection authority contacted Microsoft the accusations were briefly unavailable, but a few days later the chatbot again gave the same false claims; his lawyer sent Microsoft a cease-and-desist demand.","causal_attribution":"SWR as relayed by heise (with its hedge wohl), and the reporter to The Register."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'seeing his name associated with various crimes has been traumatizing'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"He said seeing his name associated with the crimes was traumatising.","causal_attribution":"The reporter's own account to The Register."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'We investigated this report and have taken appropriate and immediate action to address it.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'Aktuell sind die falschen Zuschreibungen nicht mehr abzurufen.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Microsoft said it had investigated the report and taken appropriate and immediate action; by late August 2024 the false answers were no longer returned.","causal_attribution":"Microsoft's statement to The Register; heise's own check at publication. Recorded as counterevidence and context."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Fast genau ein Jahr ist es jetzt her, dass der Journalist entdeckt hat, dass die Künstliche Intelligenz Copilot von Microsoft'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"He discovered the answers about a year before May 2025.","causal_attribution":"Pforzheimer Zeitung opening paragraph; basis for the 2024 event year."}],"effects":[{"label":"falsely described as a convicted child abuser and fraudster, with his contact details disclosed; said it was traumatising","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.heise.de/news/Copilot-macht-aus-einem-Gerichtsreporter-einen-Kinderschaender-9840437.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"de","translation_note":"Read in German by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-25 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. heise online, 20 August 2024; HTTP 200, full text read. Relays the reporter's account to SWR; the SWR report itself was not fetched. The body names the reporter; this record does not.","independence_group":"swr-report-copilot-court-reporter-aug-2024"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.computerbild.de/artikel/cb-News-Internet-Microsoft-Copilot-macht-aus-einem-Journalisten-einen-verurteilten-Verbrecher-38844419.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"de","translation_note":"Read in German by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-25 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. COMPUTER BILD, 20 August 2024; HTTP 200, full text read. Relays the SWR report; same origin as s1. Names the reporter.","independence_group":"swr-report-copilot-court-reporter-aug-2024"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/26/microsoft_bing_copilot_ai_halluciation/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-25; no translation needed. The Register, 26 August 2024; HTTP 200, full text read. Adds the reporter's own email to The Register (the same witness as the SWR account) and a Microsoft spokesperson's statement. Names the reporter.","independence_group":"theregister-email-interview-aug-2024"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.pz-news.de/region_artikel,-KI-macht-PZ-Reporter-zu-einem-Verbrecher-Wer-traegt-dafuer-die-Verantwortung-_arid,2218448.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"de","translation_note":"Read in German by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-25 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. Pforzheimer Zeitung, 17 May 2025; HTTP 200 but paywalled: only the opening paragraph was inspected, used for the year of discovery. Names the reporter.","independence_group":"pforzheimer-zeitung-may-2025"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["work","privacy","justice"],"unknowns":["On which dates and in which Copilot product version the answers were given, and how many other people saw them.","The prosecutors' decisions and the data-protection authority's file, which were not inspected.","Whether the cease-and-desist demand led to any legal proceedings or settlement."],"geography":{"basis":"He works as a court reporter in the Tübingen area for several publications (The Register). He found the answers by asking about himself; the country rests on his working area, not on the outlets or on the seat of the Bavarian data-protection authority that intervened.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["DE"],"affected_person_countries":["DE"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published because Copilot's own answers attributed crimes to a named court reporter and, as reported, disclosed his contact details, and he described the effect; the account rests on his statements to SWR and The Register as reported, with Microsoft's statement.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-25"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Copilot's own answers made the claims: asked about the reporter, it attributed to him the crimes of defendants in trials he had covered, and, per SWR as relayed by heise and ComputerBild, gave his phone number, address and a route to it. The reporter found the answers by asking it about himself, and heise reports the answers returned after a temporary removal.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about"]},"name":"German court reporter says Microsoft Copilot described him as a child abuser and fraudster and gave out his address; prosecutors rejected his complaint","summary":"A court reporter from the Tübingen area found in 2024 that Microsoft's Copilot, asked about him, described him as a man charged in a child abuse case, an escapee from a psychiatric institution and a fraudster who cheated widows, according to his account to the public broadcaster SWR as relayed by heise and ComputerBild. All were defendants in trials he had covered as a journalist. heise and ComputerBild, both citing SWR, report that Copilot also gave his private phone number and full home address and offered a route there. He told The Register that seeing his name tied to these crimes was traumatising and that prosecutors had rejected his criminal complaint in two instances; according to the SWR account relayed by heise, the complaint failed because no real person was the author. After the Bavarian data-protection authority contacted Microsoft the claims were briefly unavailable and then returned. Microsoft told The Register it had investigated and taken appropriate and immediate action.","incidentDate":"2024-01-01","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2024-08-20","aiSystem":"Microsoft Copilot (Bing Copilot), whose answers to questions about the reporter attributed crimes from his court reports to him","aiProduct":"Microsoft Copilot","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["reputational_harm","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Copilot attributed to a court reporter the crimes of defendants he had covered and, per SWR as relayed by heise and ComputerBild, gave out his phone number and address; he called the experience traumatising, and his criminal complaint was rejected (heise; The Register).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the court reporter, who discovered the answers by asking Copilot about himself (The Register). Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"DE","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"internal_action","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.heise.de/news/Copilot-macht-aus-einem-Gerichtsreporter-einen-Kinderschaender-9840437.html","primarySourceLabel":"heise online, 20 August 2024: Copilot turns a court reporter into a child abuser","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-25T03:21:39.743612+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-25T03:21:39.743612+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["microsoft-copilot","false-accusation","defamation","personal-data-disclosure","germany","journalist"]}]}