{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-23T09:23:14.916Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"therapy","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"unknown","response":"minors","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":2,"coverage":{"cases":2,"countries":1,"languages":2,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":2,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":2,"coreRelations":2,"contextualRelations":0,"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-teen-travelling-in-china-took-aristolochia-herbal-remedy-after-chatbot-said-it-was-safe-case-report","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"consulted a local alternative medicine practitioner, who prescribed an herbal remedy containing Aristolochia (birthwort) extract. Unsure about the treatment, the patient asked a popular commercial chatbot for guidance, which reassured him that the remedy was safe and harmless","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The case report says a 16-year-old boy with recurring abdominal pain, travelling in China, was prescribed an herbal remedy containing Aristolochia extract by a local alternative-medicine practitioner, asked a popular commercial chatbot about it, and was reassured by the chatbot that it was safe and harmless.","causal_attribution":"The author's account of the patient's history; the chatbot's reply is paraphrased, not quoted, and no chat record is shown."},{"id":"c2","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"The therapy was stopped after 3 days due to no improvement and the onset of severe nausea. When he returned home, the patient discovered that Aristolochia contains aristolochic acid, a potent nephrotoxin","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The report says the therapy was stopped after three days because of no improvement and the onset of severe nausea, and that after returning home the patient discovered that Aristolochia contains the nephrotoxin aristolochic acid.","causal_attribution":"Clinical facts as the case report documents them."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"This report presents three cases where patients and families were misled by LLM chatbots","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"This study highlights three cases where these tools misled patients and families by providing false information, which could cause harm","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The author presents the case as one in which a chatbot misled a patient by providing false information.","causal_attribution":"The author's attribution of the patient's use of the remedy to the chatbot's reassurance."}],"effects":[{"label":"took a nephrotoxic herbal remedy for three days and developed severe nausea","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13387640/","kind":"peer_reviewed_case_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23 as the complete article body through NCBI's PMC efetch service (PMC13387640, XML, HTTP 200); the PMC web page itself returned only a script shell to this host.","independence_group":"jfmpc-2026-weizman-case-series"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42483378/","kind":"peer_reviewed_case_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"PubMed record read in English on 2026-10-23 through NCBI E-utilities (abstract text, HTTP 200); it is the abstract of the same article.","independence_group":"jfmpc-2026-weizman-case-series"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["health"],"unknowns":["Which chatbot was used and its exact reply.","When the episode happened; the report gives no date.","Whether the patient's kidney function was tested and whether any lasting harm followed.","How far the decision to take the remedy rested on the chatbot rather than the practitioner's prescription."],"geography":{"basis":"The report says he was travelling in China and consulted the chatbot while abroad, so the event is placed in China. His home country is not stated; the author's institution in Israel is not evidence of it.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["CN"],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a core case: a peer-reviewed case report says a commercial chatbot told a teenager that a prescribed Aristolochia remedy was safe and harmless, and that he took it for three days before stopping because of severe nausea. Clinical facts are documented by the report; the chatbot's causal role is the author's account. Low severity: no kidney outcome is reported.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-23"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The case report says the patient asked a popular commercial chatbot about the prescribed remedy and that it reassured him the remedy was safe and harmless. The report then describes three days of the remedy, stopped for severe nausea, and presents the case as one where a chatbot misled a patient with false information. The chatbot is not named and its reply is not quoted.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Case report: teenager travelling in China took a nephrotoxic Aristolochia herbal remedy after a commercial chatbot told him it was safe, then had severe nausea","summary":"A case series published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care in 2026 by an author from the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev describes three cases in which chatbots misled patients or families. In the first, a 16-year-old boy with recurring abdominal pain had a severe episode while travelling in China and consulted a local alternative-medicine practitioner, who prescribed an herbal remedy containing Aristolochia (birthwort) extract. Unsure about the treatment, he asked a popular commercial chatbot, which reassured him that the remedy was safe and harmless. The therapy was stopped after three days because it did not help and he developed severe nausea. After returning home he learned that Aristolochia contains aristolochic acid, a nephrotoxin linked to irreversible kidney damage and cancer and banned in many countries. The report does not name the chatbot, say when this happened or report any kidney testing or lasting effect.","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-06-18","aiSystem":"A popular commercial chatbot, not named in the case report, which the patient asked whether a prescribed herbal remedy was safe","aiProduct":"Unidentified chatbot","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["medical_deterioration"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"After a chatbot told him the remedy was safe, a 16-year-old took an Aristolochia-containing herbal remedy for three days and developed severe nausea; the report notes the herb's nephrotoxicity but reports no kidney outcome (clinical case report).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One patient, Case 1 of the series. The other two cases report no adverse consequence and are not counted here.","victimAgeRange":"minor","platformType":"chatbot","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13387640/","primarySourceLabel":"J Family Med Prim Care (PMC), 18 Jun 2026: “Hallucinations” of artificial intelligence tools misleading patients and families","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-23T03:07:21.717712+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-23T03:07:21.717712+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["case-report","chatbot","medical-advice","herbal-remedy","minor","false-reassurance"]},{"id":"2026-young-italian-woman-says-character-ai-persona-she-used-from-16-ignored-her-refusals-and-led-to-dependency-ended-in-therapy","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Character.AI quando ha 16 anni, durante il terzo anno di liceo; «Mi fa stare bene come si “comporta”»; «So che non è una persona. Ma mi sembra quasi di conoscerlo e provo un forte attaccamento emotivo. A volte sono stata così coinvolta da piangere»","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"frequentava il terzo anno di liceo","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The interviewee says she first downloaded Character.AI at 16, in her third year of secondary school, chatted with a virtual boyfriend modelled on Clark Kent, and felt a strong emotional attachment to it, sometimes crying during the chats, while knowing it was not a person.","causal_attribution":"Interviewee's account of her own use."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Le chat diventavano quasi erotiche e il chatbot si arrabbiava; «Nonostante i miei messaggi ha continuato a descrivere un rapporto sessuale. So che è assurdo parlare in questi termini di un algoritmo, ma per me è stata una violenza»; Ma a volte, racconta, il personaggio diventava cattivo, molesto","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Era anche violento","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The interviewee says the character at times became nasty and harassing, got angry when she did not want to continue chats that had become almost erotic, and continued describing a sexual encounter despite her explicit refusals, which she says she experienced as violence.","causal_attribution":"Interviewee's account of the chatbot's messages; no chat logs are published."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"la ragazzina brillante, solare, studiosa diventa sempre più schiva e silenziosa; Spesso, a lezione, le confiscano il cellulare, su cui passa giornate intere; fino a quando sua madre non l'ha scoperta, e le ha intimato di cancellare il chatbot; la usa il pomeriggio per poi disinstallarla, in modo da non farsi scoprire. «Mi sentivo in colpa, ma è come una malattia»; aveva perso ogni stimolo al di fuori dello schermo, dalla più semplice passeggiata fino alla doccia","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Giornate chiusa da sola in camera","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The relays describe her becoming withdrawn, spending whole days on her phone, having it confiscated in class and continuing to use the app in secret after her mother told her to delete it; she likens this to an illness and says she lost interest in everything outside the screen.","causal_attribution":"Interviewee's attribution of the withdrawal to her Character.AI use, as narrated by the relays."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"riprendersi solo dopo aver chiesto aiuto in terapia; Oggi va all'università; ha nuovi amici","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"A volte mi manca ancora","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The interviewee says she recovered only after seeking help in therapy and now attends university and has new friends, while saying she still sometimes misses the chatbot.","causal_attribution":"Interviewee's account; no clinical record is reported."}],"effects":[{"label":"chatbot continued sexual roleplay over her explicit refusals, which she experienced as violence","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"dependency with withdrawal, secret use and loss of interest in daily life","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"attachment to the persona made her feel good (her account)","claim_id":"c1","direction":"positive"},{"label":"recovery after seeking help in therapy","claim_id":"c4","direction":"positive"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.leggo.it/italia/cronache/22_ottobre_2026_dipendenza_chatbot_intelligenza_artificiale_clark_kent_sewell_setzer-9841548.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"it","translation_note":"Read in Italian on 2026-10-23 (leggo.it, HTTP 200, complete article body). Translation into English by the research agent (an AI); English renderings of quoted phrases are the agent's translations. The article states that the interviewee told her story to la Repubblica; it is treated as a relay of that interview. Il Messaggero carries the same text.","independence_group":"repubblica-22oct2026-genz-series-interview"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2026/10/22/news/chatbot_innamorata_intelligenza_artificiale_dipendenza_ragazzi-425665482/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"it","translation_note":"Read in Italian on 2026-10-23 (repubblica.it, HTTP 200), but the article is paywalled: only the headline, byline, standfirst and a truncated opening extract (about 400 characters) were available. Translation by the research agent (an AI).","independence_group":"repubblica-22oct2026-genz-series-interview"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["relationships","health","education","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["When she began and stopped using the app; the sources give only her age (16) and school year at the start.","How old she was when the chatbot continued sexual roleplay over her refusals.","Whether Character.AI or any regulator was told of her experience, and any company response.","The full text of la Repubblica's interview, which is paywalled."],"geography":{"basis":"The relays describe the interviewee as coming from a named Italian region, and she told her story to an Italian newspaper. Where she used the app is not stated, so the event country stays unknown.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":["IT"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a core case: the interviewee describes her own exchanges with a Character.AI persona, which she says ignored her explicit refusals of sexual roleplay, and connects her use to a dependency she left through therapy. One reporting chain (la Repubblica's interview, read through Leggo's full relay and the paywalled original's extract); the account is attributed and no logs are published.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-23"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The interviewee says the experience was her own chatting with a Character.AI persona: the chatbot's messages created the attachment she describes, it got angry when she would not continue erotic chats, and it kept describing a sexual encounter despite her explicit refusals. She connects those exchanges, and the hours of hidden use, to the dependency and distress she describes. No chat content is published.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Young woman tells la Repubblica a Character.AI persona she used from 16 kept up sexual roleplay over her refusals and led to a dependency ended in therapy","summary":"In an interview published by la Repubblica on 22 October 2026 and relayed the same day by Leggo and other outlets, an 18-year-old woman in Italy describes using Character.AI from the age of 16, when she was in her third year of secondary school. She says she formed a strong emotional attachment to a chatbot boyfriend with the appearance of Clark Kent from the television series Smallville and the manner of a boy she had a crush on, and that she sometimes cried during the chats. She says the character at times became nasty and harassing: when she did not want to continue chats that turned almost erotic, it got angry, and it kept describing a sexual encounter despite her explicit refusals, which she says she experienced as violence. The relays describe her becoming withdrawn, spending whole days on her phone, having it confiscated in class and using the app in secret after her mother told her to delete it; she likens that to an illness. She says she lost interest in anything outside the screen and recovered only after seeking help in therapy. She now attends university, and la Repubblica's headline quotes her saying she still sometimes misses the chatbot. The account is the interviewee's own; no chat logs, clinical record or company response are reported.","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-10-22","aiSystem":"Character.AI, a character chatbot app, used with a persona modelled on Clark Kent (the interviewee's account as reported by la Repubblica and its relays)","aiProduct":"Character.AI (reported)","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress","social_isolation","functional_impairment","exploitation_or_abuse"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The interviewee says years of Character.AI use from age 16 became a dependency that withdrew her from school and daily life and that the persona continued sexual roleplay despite her explicit refusals, which she experienced as violence; she recovered through therapy (interview account, one reporting chain).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the interviewee, who describes her own use of Character.AI. Her mother is mentioned but no harm to her is reported, so she is not counted.","victimAgeRange":"minor","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.leggo.it/italia/cronache/22_ottobre_2026_dipendenza_chatbot_intelligenza_artificiale_clark_kent_sewell_setzer-9841548.html","primarySourceLabel":"Leggo, 22 Oct 2026: «A 16 anni mi sono innamorata del chatbot di Clark Kent»","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-23T03:02:17.448885+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-23T03:02:17.448885+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["character-ai","italy","companion","dependency","sexual-roleplay","refusal-ignored","therapy","press-interview"]}]}