{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-10T07:15:01.924Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"tourism","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":2,"coverage":{"cases":2,"countries":2,"languages":2,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":1,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"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":"2025-tasmania-weldborough-tour-website-ai-article-invented-hot-springs-travellers-detour","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'An AI-generated article on a travel booking website has sent tourists to a remote location in Tasmania's north-east, looking for hot springs that do not exist.' and 'The website says walkers are greeted by pools \"rich in therapeutic minerals\".' and 'The problem is, the hot springs, as depicted in the imagery, do not exist.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'In a now-deleted article published last July, the Tasmania Tours website suggested visitors go to “Weldborough Hot Springs”, calling it a “peaceful escape” offering an “authentic connection to nature”.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"An AI-generated article on the Tasmania Tours website described \"Weldborough Hot Springs\" in north-east Tasmania as a real attraction with mineral-rich pools; no such hot springs exist.","causal_attribution":"ABC News's own reading of the website article, with the operator's admission; The Independent relays ABC News."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Australian Tours and Cruises has admitted the AI technology it uses to create content and articles to help drive bookings has \"completely messed up\".' and 'He said the company had outsourced marketing material to a third party, which used AI to create some of its content.' and 'Mr Hennessy said all the AI-generated blog posts had been taken down and were being checked thoroughly.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The website operator, Australian Tours and Cruises, said the AI technology used by its third-party content provider had \"completely messed up\", that some posts went live by mistake, and that the AI-generated posts were taken down.","causal_attribution":"The operator's own statements to ABC News."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'I actually had a group of 24 drivers turn up there two days ago that were on a trip from the mainland, and they'd actually taken a detour to come to the hot springs' and 'she was getting daily phone calls and in-person visitors asking about the hot springs, some even wanting to book accommodation.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'It started with a few calls in September, Probert said, and then people began “turning up in droves”.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Travellers who read the article turned up at or telephoned the Weldborough Hotel asking how to find the springs; the publican said she received daily calls and visits and that a group of 24 drivers on a trip from the mainland had taken a detour to find the springs two days before the report.","causal_attribution":"The publican's account as quoted by ABC News and relayed by The Independent; no traveller is interviewed."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Australian Tours and Cruises told CNN that the AI-generated post and the resultant damage to their reputation as well as online hate they received had been “absolutely soul-destroying”.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The operator said that reputational damage and online hate following the episode had been \"absolutely soul-destroying\".","causal_attribution":"The operator's statement to CNN as relayed by The Independent; the CNN article was not inspected."}],"effects":[{"label":"wasted journeys and inquiries by travellers who relied on an AI-written article describing hot springs that do not exist","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-22/ai-images-of-tasmania-on-tour-website/106253448","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-10; no translation was needed and no human reviewer inspected the text. HTTP 200, full article body retained.","independence_group":"abc-news-weldborough-report-2026-01-22"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/ai-tasmania-tours-weldborough-hot-springs-b2909962.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-10; no translation was needed and no human reviewer inspected the text. HTTP 200, full article body retained.","independence_group":"abc-news-weldborough-report-2026-01-22"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["others_use"],"contexts":["everyday_life"],"unknowns":["Which AI tool the contractor used and whether the text and images came from one tool or several; no report names it.","How many people in total travelled to or contacted Weldborough; the publican gives one counted group of 24 and otherwise describes daily calls and visits without numbers.","The exact date the article went live (ABC News and The Independent give July 2025) and the dates of individual journeys; the 24-driver group is dated only as two days before the 22 January 2026 report.","Whether any traveller suffered a financial loss beyond the detour; no traveller is interviewed."],"geography":{"basis":"ABC News places the invented springs and the travellers' visits in Weldborough, north-east Tasmania, about two hours' drive from Launceston; the publican describes the group of 24 drivers as being on a trip from the mainland, which places them in Australia. No court proceeding is reported.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["AU"],"affected_person_countries":["AU"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published on one attributed reporting chain: ABC News read the website article, quoted its description of the invented springs, obtained the operator's admission that its outsourced AI content had failed, and quoted the publican who received the misdirected travellers, including a counted group of 24 drivers who detoured to find the springs. The Independent relays that account and adds the operator's statement to CNN. The AI-written article is the described output and the travellers' reliance on it is the described connection to the wasted journeys. All claims stay reported because they rest on one chain and no traveller is interviewed.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-10"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"ABC News describes the article as AI-generated, quotes its text describing \"Weldborough Hot Springs\" as a \"secluded forest retreat\" with pools \"rich in therapeutic minerals\", and reports the operator's admission that the AI technology it uses to create content and articles had \"completely messed up\" and that a third party used AI to create some of its content. The publican connects that article to the harm: travellers who had read about the springs turned up at the hotel asking for directions, and a group of 24 drivers detoured to find them. The reports state the springs do not exist. The tool is not named.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Weldborough, Tasmania: AI-written tour-website article invented hot springs; publican says travellers, including a group of 24 drivers, detoured to find them","summary":"An AI-generated article on the Tasmania Tours booking website described \"Weldborough Hot Springs\", a \"secluded forest retreat\" with pools \"rich in therapeutic minerals\", as one of the best hot-spring experiences in Tasmania. No such springs exist: the Weld River that runs through Weldborough, a small town in north-east Tasmania, is cold. ABC News reported on 22 January 2026 that travellers who read the article had been turning up at the town's pub, the Weldborough Hotel, to ask for directions, and the publican said she was receiving daily calls and visits and that a group of 24 drivers on a trip from the mainland had taken a detour two days earlier to find the springs. ABC News reported that the article was posted in July 2025, and The Independent, citing ABC News and CNN, reported that inquiries began with a few calls in September 2025. The operator, Australian Tours and Cruises, said its outsourced AI content had \"completely messed up\", that some posts had gone live by mistake, and that all AI-generated blog posts had been taken down. The reports describe the travellers only as a group; no individual traveller is interviewed, and the AI tool is not named.","incidentDate":"2025-09-01","incidentEndDate":"2026-01-20","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-01-22","aiSystem":"Generative AI used by a third-party marketing contractor to write articles and generate images for the Tasmania Tours booking website (operated by Australian Tours and Cruises); the tool is not named in the inspected reports.","aiProduct":"Unidentified AI writing tool","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"According to the publican quoted by ABC News, travellers who relied on the AI-written article made a wasted journey to a remote town to find springs that do not exist: a group of 24 drivers from the mainland detoured to Weldborough two days before the 22 January 2026 report, and the pub received daily phone calls and in-person visits from people asking for the springs, some wanting to book accommodation. The operator told CNN, as relayed by The Independent, that reputational damage and online hate after the episode had been \"absolutely soul-destroying\". No injury, financial figure or individual traveller's account is reported.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":24,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"The publican told ABC News that \"a group of 24 drivers\" who had taken a detour to find the springs turned up two days before the report; that quoted figure is the counted minimum of travellers harmed. She also described daily phone calls and in-person visitors over a period, which the reports do not quantify, so the status is partial. The business owners and the operator are not counted as harmed persons. Website readers who did not travel or call are not counted.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"AU","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-22/ai-images-of-tasmania-on-tour-website/106253448","primarySourceLabel":"ABC News, 22 January 2026: tour website's AI sends visitors to Tasmanian sites that do not exist (publican and operator interviews)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-10T03:15:30.77417+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-10T03:15:30.77417+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["ai-generated-content","travel","tourism","hallucination","australia","tasmania","website","communicated-with","others-use"]},{"id":"2026-guanajuato-vendimias-spot-announcer-voice-ai-clone-carreto","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'El locutor comercial Diego Carreto denunció que en un spot promocional de las Vendimias de Guanajuato, elaborado por una empresa privada, pero difundido por la Secretaría de Turismo del Estado, se utilizó su voz sin su autorización, pues él nunca trabajó ni para ese spot, ni para esa empresa, ni para la Secretaría de Turismo.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'“El gobierno utilizó un anuncio para una campaña nacional con mi voz, cuando yo no fui contactado para esa campaña, no la grabé”.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"A promotional spot for Vendimias Guanajuato, produced by a private agency and distributed by the Guanajuato state tourism secretariat, used a voice that the León commercial announcer Diego Carreto says is his although he never recorded it or worked for the agency or the secretariat.","causal_attribution":"His account. That the voice was made with generative AI is his inference; neither the agency nor the secretariat has confirmed how it was produced."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Por lo tanto, al ser público, supuso que su demo fue parte del material que se utilizó para alimentar a la inteligencia artificial generativa.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Pido tres cosas: la remuneración por mi trabajo, porque es mi voz. El que se dé de baja todo el material que yo no grabé”, además de la eliminación de sus datos biométricos.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Carreto believes his public voice demo was used to train or feed a generative-AI voice system, and he asked for removal of the material, payment for the use of his voice, legal action against those responsible and deletion of his biometric data.","causal_attribution":"His stated belief about the method and his demands."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'El spot ya se difundió a nivel nacional, dijo él mismo, y en entrevista con AM precisó que lo vio en Puebla y en la Ciudad de México.'; 'También señaló que el spot se difundió a nivel estatal en la radio, en las redes sociales de la Secretaría de Turismo del Estado de Guanajuato y del Gobierno de Guanajuato, así como en la plataforma oficial de promoción turística de México, llamada Visit México.'; 'AM verificó este domingo y el spot ya no estaba en la cuenta de X de la Sectur estatal.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Carreto says the spot circulated nationally (he saw it in Puebla and Mexico City) and was distributed within Guanajuato on radio, on the social media of the state tourism secretariat and the state government, and on the Visit México platform; AM found it no longer on the secretariat's X account on 27 September.","causal_attribution":"Distribution as described by Carreto; the removal from X is AM's own check."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'“Rechazamos cualquier uso indebido de la voz o imagen de una persona, incluido el uso de herramientas de inteligencia artificial sin la autorización correspondiente”.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'hemos solicitado de manera inmediata a la empresa responsable de su producción que aclare lo ocurrido, responda al planteamiento y atienda la situación conforme corresponda'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"The state Secretaría de Turismo e Identidad said it rejects any unauthorised use of a person's voice or image, including with AI tools, and asked the production company to clarify what happened, respond to the complaint and deal with the situation as appropriate.","causal_attribution":"The secretariat did not confirm or deny that his voice was cloned."}],"effects":[{"label":"a voice he says is his, which he never recorded, used without consent or payment in a state tourism advertisement","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.am.com.mx/guanajuato/2026/09/27/diego-carreto-denuncia-que-clonaron-su-voz-con-ia-para-spot-de-vendimias-guanajuato-1849241.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"es","translation_note":"Read live in Spanish on 2026-09-29 (Periódico AM, 27 September 2026). Interview with Carreto plus AM's own checks. Researcher translation.","independence_group":"carreto-account"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://ahoramx.com/2026/09/parece-un-capitulo-de-black-mirror-diego-carreto-denuncia-uso-de-su-voz-con-ia/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"es","translation_note":"Read live in Spanish on 2026-09-29 (Ahora Mx interview). Researcher translation.","independence_group":"carreto-account"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://periodicocorreo.com.mx/leon/2026/sep/27/denuncian-uso-no-autorizado-de-voz-con-ia-en-promocion-de-vendimias-guanajuato-2026-167667.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"es","translation_note":"Read live in Spanish on 2026-09-29 (Periódico Correo, 27 September 2026); quotes the Secretaría de Turismo e Identidad communiqué. Researcher translation.","independence_group":"sectur-guanajuato-statement"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.conxionturistica.com/post/secretar%C3%ADa-de-turismo-de-guanajuato-rechaza-y-condena-uso-indebido-de-voz-o-imagen-de-persona-con-in","kind":"news_relay","access":"read","language":"es","translation_note":"Read live in Spanish on 2026-09-29; relays the same communiqué. Researcher translation.","independence_group":"sectur-guanajuato-statement"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["work"],"unknowns":["How the voice was produced; the agency's account.","Whether he has been paid or a legal complaint filed.","Whether the spot has been withdrawn from all channels.","When the spot was produced and first aired; it was circulating before his complaint of 25 September 2026."],"geography":{"basis":"The spot was commissioned for the Guanajuato state tourism campaign and broadcast in Mexico; Carreto lives in León, Guanajuato (Periódico AM).","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["MX"],"affected_person_countries":["MX"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as a core case (a professional's voice reproduced without consent in a government-distributed advertisement, which he attributes to AI cloning). The account is his, reported by several Mexican outlets; the state tourism secretariat's response is recorded. AI use is suspected, not established.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Carreto says the voice in the spot is his and that he never recorded it; he infers that his public demo fed a generative-AI system and notes that the agency advertises AI services (Periódico AM; Ahora Mx). The state secretariat's communiqué refers to AI tools without confirming their use (Periódico Correo). No technical analysis is reported.","status":"suspected"},"person_relations":["depicted_or_impersonated"]},"name":"Guanajuato, Mexico: León announcer Diego Carreto says a state-distributed Vendimias Guanajuato tourism ad used an AI clone of his voice that he never recorded or was paid for; the state tourism secretariat asks the producing agency to explain","summary":"On 25 September 2026 Diego Carreto, a 26-year-old commercial announcer from León, Guanajuato, published a video saying that a promotional spot for Vendimias Guanajuato 2026, produced by a private agency and distributed by the state Secretaría de Turismo e Identidad, used his voice although he never recorded it, never worked with the agency and was never contacted. He showed segments of the spot and repeated the same lines himself. He believes his public voice demo was fed into a generative-AI system, and asked for removal of all material with his voice, payment for its use, legal action against those responsible and deletion of his biometric data. He says the spot ran nationally, and within Guanajuato on radio, on state government social media and on the Visit México platform. The secretariat said it rejects any unauthorised use of a person's voice or image, including with AI tools, and asked the producing company to clarify what happened. AI use has not been confirmed.","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2026-09-27","aiSystem":"A voice attributed by the announcer to generative-AI cloning, used in an advertisement produced by a private agency for the Guanajuato state tourism secretariat; the tool and its use are unconfirmed","aiProduct":"Unidentified voice-cloning tool (suspected)","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["professional_harm","other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A commercial announcer says his voice was reproduced, which he attributes to AI cloning, and used without consent or payment in a nationally broadcast state tourism advertisement (Carreto via Periódico AM and Ahora Mx).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person, the announcer whose voice was used (Periódico AM). Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"MX-GUA","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"internal_action","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.am.com.mx/guanajuato/2026/09/27/diego-carreto-denuncia-que-clonaron-su-voz-con-ia-para-spot-de-vendimias-guanajuato-1849241.html","primarySourceLabel":"Periódico AM, 27 September 2026: Diego Carreto denuncia que clonaron su voz con IA para spot de Vendimias Guanajuato","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T03:22:11.290326+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:38.71861+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["voice-cloning","voice-actor","government-advertising","guanajuato","mexico","unauthorised-use","depicted-or-impersonated"]}]}