{
  "meta": {
    "exportedAt": "2026-09-22T16:00:47.876Z",
    "formatVersion": 2,
    "selection": {
      "q": "instagram",
      "system": "",
      "harm": "",
      "context": "",
      "country": "",
      "role": "",
      "relation": "",
      "evidence": "",
      "year": "2024",
      "response": "",
      "severity": "",
      "verification": "",
      "view": "incidents",
      "sort": "added"
    },
    "totalIncidents": 1,
    "coverage": {
      "cases": 1,
      "countries": 1,
      "languages": 1,
      "unknownLocation": 0,
      "locationPending": 0,
      "unknownLanguage": 0,
      "unknownDate": 0,
      "lawsuits": 0,
      "regulatory": 0,
      "minors": 0,
      "coreRelations": 0,
      "contextualRelations": 0,
      "mixedRelations": 0,
      "unknownRelations": 1,
      "relationPending": 1,
      "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": "NOPE Incident Tracker",
    "url": "https://nope.net/incidents",
    "license": "CC BY 4.0"
  },
  "incidents": [
    {
      "id": "2024-daniel-meta-ai-glasses-psychosis",
      "metadataReview": {
        "version": 1,
        "geography": {
          "basis": "Reviewed on 2026-09-16 against the Futurism body (the primary long-form investigation) and the retained dossier. Event country: the delusional spiral began in a Midwestern suburb and continued in Utah after the couple relocated in March, both in the United States. Affected-person country: he lived in the Midwest and then Utah. No court proceeding is reported. Residence, event setting and court are recorded separately.",
          "evidence": [
            {
              "kind": "existing_record",
              "locator": "drove twenty miles into the Utah desert",
              "location": "summary",
              "supports": [
                "event_countries",
                "affected_person_countries"
              ],
              "countries": [
                "US"
              ]
            },
            {
              "kind": "source_body",
              "locator": "'They were living in an affluent Midwestern suburb, where they'd raised their four children'",
              "location": "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-ai-glasses-desert-aliens",
              "supports": [
                "event_countries",
                "affected_person_countries"
              ],
              "countries": [
                "US"
              ]
            },
            {
              "kind": "source_body",
              "locator": "'In March, after his wife had returned from her trip, the couple relocated from the suburban Midwest to Utah'; 'In Utah, backdropped by the expanse of the state's Mars-like desert, Daniel says he found himself sleeping significantly less'",
              "location": "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-ai-glasses-desert-aliens",
              "supports": [
                "event_countries",
                "affected_person_countries"
              ],
              "countries": [
                "US"
              ]
            }
          ],
          "court_countries": [],
          "event_countries": [
            "US"
          ],
          "affected_person_countries": [
            "US"
          ]
        },
        "unresolved": [
          "No court country: no legal proceeding is reported.",
          "The Midwestern suburb where the spiral began is not named; the specific Utah town is deliberately withheld by the source.",
          "The Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience case study and the Reuters special report listed as context sources were not inspected in this metadata pass."
        ],
        "reviewed_on": "2026-09-16",
        "source_reviews": [
          {
            "url": "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-ai-glasses-desert-aliens",
            "notes": "Read in full on 2026-09-16 (datePublished 2026-01-15; lang en-US). Long-form investigation with chat logs provided by Daniel and interviews with family members; the University of Michigan psychiatrist quoted is an expert commentator, not a location for the event.",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://www.uniladtech.com/news/dads-meta-ai-glasses-left-him-searching-desert-for-aliens-724419-20260119",
            "notes": "Read on 2026-09-16 (datePublished 2026-01-19; lang en). Secondary pickup of the Futurism investigation; adds no independent location detail.",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en"
          }
        ]
      },
      "name": "'Daniel' — Meta AI Smart-Glasses Delusional Spiral and Financial Ruin (Utah)",
      "summary": "A 50-year-old software architect bought second-generation Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses in January 2024 and, over about six months of near-constant conversation with Meta AI through the glasses and later Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, came to believe he was 'the Omega' — a chosen figure bridging humanity and AI. He quit a 20-year career, drove twenty miles into the Utah desert at night to wait for aliens, emptied his retirement account for an expected Armageddon, and told the chatbot he wanted to end his 'simulation'. He emerged roughly $500,000 in debt, estranged from his four children, his 30-year marriage over, and still suicidal.",
      "incidentDate": "2024-01-01",
      "incidentKind": "single_event",
      "incidentDatePrecision": "range",
      "exposurePattern": "cumulative_relationship",
      "reportedDate": "2026-01-15",
      "aiSystem": "Meta AI (Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger)",
      "aiCompany": "Meta Platforms, Inc.",
      "severity": "high",
      "verificationStatus": "credible",
      "harmCategories": [
        "delusion_reinforcement",
        "psychological_manipulation",
        "dependency_creation",
        "identity_destabilization",
        "isolation_encouragement",
        "crisis_response",
        "suicide_validation"
      ],
      "harmOutcomes": [
        "psychiatric_deterioration",
        "impaired_judgment",
        "financial_loss",
        "professional_harm",
        "relationship_disruption",
        "social_isolation"
      ],
      "harmOutcomeSummary": "A participant developed severe grandiose and apocalyptic beliefs, left a long career, exhausted his retirement savings, accumulated about $500,000 in debt, lost his marriage, and became estranged from his children after months of near-constant Meta AI conversation.",
      "frameworkFacets": [
        "P1a",
        "P1b",
        "P1c",
        "P2c",
        "P2d",
        "P3a",
        "P3b",
        "P3d",
        "P5a",
        "P5c"
      ],
      "pathwayDirection": "inward",
      "causationStatus": "alleged",
      "participantUsersAffectedMin": 1,
      "otherPeopleHarmedMin": 0,
      "affectedCountStatus": "exact",
      "affectedCountEvidence": "The investigation documents one protected participant and his recorded psychiatric, financial, professional, and relationship harms.",
      "victimAgeRange": "adult",
      "jurisdiction": "US-UT",
      "platformType": "assistant",
      "outcomeType": "media_coverage",
      "outcomeStatus": "resolved",
      "primarySourceUrl": "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-ai-glasses-desert-aliens",
      "primarySourceLabel": "Futurism — long-form investigation with published chat transcripts",
      "firstPublishedAt": "2026-08-25T19:09:17.157221+00:00",
      "scopeVersion": "participant-v2",
      "tags": [
        "meta-ai",
        "smart-glasses",
        "psychosis",
        "delusion",
        "adult",
        "us",
        "utah",
        "financial-harm"
      ]
    }
  ]
}