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NOPE · AI and people

AI incidents

Reports of AI-related harm and adverse experiences affecting people’s safety, wellbeing, rights and livelihoods. Explore what happened and the evidence available.

NOPE’s core concern is when AI communicates with a person, acts on their behalf, or depicts or impersonates them. The tracker also records consequential decisions, claims and privacy harms involving AI. Each case needs a described connection between AI use and the harm, including private information recorded into or disclosed to an AI service. Each account is reviewed for publication; claims may remain uncorroborated or disputed. How we review and count cases

In this selection

Published cases
348
Countries with reported events
40
Located 287 of 348 cases · 61 unknown
Languages in checked sources
34
Recorded for 348 of 348 cases

35 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 0 not yet reviewed and 35 reviewed as unknown. Show these cases

These figures describe the cases collected by NOPE. Coverage varies with discovery, reporting and available evidence. They do not estimate how often AI-related harm occurs.

Response counts currently use each case’s principal recorded outcome. Further proceedings may be described in its account.

Cases in this selection, counted once in their first known event year. A series may continue beyond that year. Reporting and collection dates are excluded. NOPE has searched recent events more thoroughly than earlier years, so bar heights also reflect collection effort.

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348 of 1099 published cases · page 10 of 18

4 Jun 2026TaiwanUnidentified image tool

Taipei prosecutors say an AI deepfake photo showed mayoral candidate Puma Shen with a nude woman and drug gear; a man who reshared it gets deferred prosecution

On the evening of 4 June 2026 an account on X posted a fabricated photo showing Puma Shen (沈伯洋), the Democratic Progressive Party's prospective candidate for Taipei mayor, beside a scantily dressed woman at a table with white powder and apparent drug paraphernalia, suggesting drug use and sex. According to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office decision reported by the Liberty Times and TaiSounds, the account used AI technology to synthesise the image, and it was then reposted by other accounts. On 7 June a 66-year-old man shared it on Facebook with a real photo of Shen and the comment 'does it look alike?'. Shen, who considered his reputation seriously damaged, filed a complaint with the Investigation Bureau's Taipei office, whose deepfake-detection software (Reality Defender) returned 'deepfake detected', and two further tools found the image synthetic. Prosecutors concluded that the man's reposting amounted to aggravated defamation; because he confessed, deleted the posts, published an apology and Shen agreed in writing, they deferred prosecution for two years on 12 October 2026 and ordered ten law-education sessions. The X account's IP address was traced to China and is under separate investigation. Shen is named as a public political figure and the complainant; the resharer is not named.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 12/10/2026

11 Nov 2022 to 16 Nov 2022CanadaAir Canada chatbot

Air Canada website chatbot wrongly told a bereaved passenger a fare reduction could be claimed after travel; BC tribunal ordered the airline to pay damages

On 11 November 2022, after a grandparent died in Ontario, a passenger asked the support chatbot on Air Canada's website about bereavement fares. The chatbot's response, in a screenshot later filed in evidence, said a ticket could be submitted for a reduced bereavement rate within 90 days of issue, including after travel, while the airline's bereavement webpage said the policy did not apply after travel was completed. Relying on that answer, the passenger bought full-fare one-way tickets between Vancouver and Toronto for $794.98 and $845.38 and applied for the reduction on 17 November. In February 2023 an Air Canada representative admitted the chatbot had provided misleading words. On 14 February 2024 the British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal found negligent misrepresentation, rejected the airline's argument that it could not be held liable for its chatbot, found it had not taken reasonable care to ensure the chatbot was accurate, and ordered it to pay $812.02, including $650.88 in damages.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution established · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 12/10/2026

2024United StatesUnidentified voice-cloning tool (suspected)

Florida: judge suspended for sharing, as a 2024 candidate, a fabricated call of justices the judicial watchdog says was likely computer-manipulated or AI-made

While campaigning in 2024 for a Broward County court seat, Lauren Peffer, now a county judge, sought the endorsement of the South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial board. Asked to back her claim of an image crisis in Florida's judiciary, she cited a self-published book by a fired employee of the Ninth Judicial Circuit and supplied a recording purportedly of a phone call about the book between Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz, Justice Renatha Francis and the circuit's chief judge, Lisa Munyon. The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission's notice of formal charges, filed in May 2025, said the recording was fabricated, likely using computer manipulation or generative AI, and that while the voices resembled those of the participants, the manner of speech, tone and much of the content were objectively unrealistic. The notice said she had shared it despite clear evidence of its inauthenticity and had perpetuated a false perception of illegal, unethical or immoral conduct by the justices, a chief judge and others in the judicial branch. Peffer apologised, said the content was created by a third party with whom she had no ties, and testified that she could not explain why she had thought it valid. According to Bloomberg Law, the Florida Supreme Court on 9 October 2026 suspended her for 30 days and fined her $10,000, saying her conduct undermined public confidence in the judiciary by implicating sitting justices; the two justices whose voices were faked recused. Who made the recording, and with what tool, is not reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources · Added 12/10/2026

31 Jul 2023Event location unknownUnidentified AI video-analysis system

Asturias court rules a security guard's 2023 dismissal unfair after a client replaced on-site guarding with AI cameras and patrols, La Razón reports

According to La Razón's account of a July 2024 judgment of the High Court of Justice of Asturias, Duro Felguera replaced the continuous on-site guarding provided by the contractor Protectum with a Securitas service that, from 1 August 2023, combined cameras with artificial intelligence for video analysis, roving patrols and alarm response. The guards of the outgoing contract were left out of the new one. Protectum ended a guard's employment on 31 July 2023. The court held that Securitas did not have to take him on because the new service was different, declared the dismissal unfair and ordered Protectum to pay him €30,672.72 in compensation plus processing wages. La Razón notes that human guards still intervened in the new service and that the presence of AI was part of the reorganisation without making the dismissal lawful.

AI relation unknown Medium reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 12/10/2026

15 Dec 2025 to 1 Oct 2026CanadaUnidentified AI drafting tool

Quebec Court of Appeal orders costs against a self-represented appellant whose AI-drafted filings cited two non-existent judgments (1 Oct 2026)

On 1 October 2026 the Quebec Court of Appeal ordered court costs against a self-represented appellant in a family-law contempt appeal as a sanction for appeal filings that, in the court's description, he had written with artificial intelligence and that contained two references to non-existent judgments and one inaccurate reference to a cited paragraph. The court held that AI may be used to draft appeal filings only if the litigant verifies the authorities, found that he had breached the Chief Justice's notice on AI use, and described his conduct as negligence rather than bad faith. It rejected the respondent's request for a separate $10,000 sanction and, for reasons unrelated to AI, reduced the contempt penalty imposed at first instance. The decision does not name the AI tool.

Core + contextual relations Low reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 12/10/2026

1 May 2025CanadaChatGPT

Ontario: lawyer who relied on ChatGPT-invented case law in a factum was referred for criminal contempt and suspended for six months, legal press reports

An Ontario lawyer relied, at a 1 May 2025 Superior Court hearing in an estate and family-law matter, on a factum citing cases that do not exist or do not support the propositions cited. The judge ordered her to show cause why she should not be cited for contempt, then withdrew the order on 20 May 2025 after she said her staff had used ChatGPT without her knowledge. On 30 September 2025 she told the court that she alone had prepared the factum with ChatGPT and that her earlier account was untrue; the court referred the matter to Ontario’s Attorney General for criminal contempt proceedings in December 2025. In July 2026 the Law Society Tribunal suspended her licence for six months, finding she relied on AI-generated non-existent case law and lied about it. The account comes from legal-press and law-firm reports of the decisions; the criminal contempt case was still ongoing at the last report read.

Core concern Medium reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 7 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 12/10/2026

6 Oct 2026United StatesUnidentified AI drafting tool (suspected)

Arizona federal court dismisses a Title VII complaint it says appears AI-generated and bars the plaintiff from using AI to draft the amended complaint

On 6 October 2026 a judge of the US District Court for the District of Arizona dismissed a 67-page, 199-paragraph workplace complaint filed on 11 September 2026, saying it appeared to have been generated by artificial intelligence because it resembled other AI-generated complaints the court had encountered. The court dismissed it as a shotgun pleading that did not give the defendant or the court sufficient notice of the claims, which it said shifted between Title VII retaliation, hostile work environment and retaliatory hostile work environment. It granted leave to file an amended complaint of no more than 25 pages by 19 October 2026, prohibited the plaintiff from using AI to draft it and directed entry of a judgment of dismissal with prejudice if no amended complaint is filed. The order does not establish who drafted the complaint or name any AI tool.

Contextual tracker case Low reported severity Lawsuit Dismissed

AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 12/10/2026

26 Jun 2025 to 17 Nov 2025United KingdomUnidentified AI tool

UK Upper Tribunal refers a supervising solicitor to the SRA over false citations in judicial review grounds; tribunal records he accepted they were AI-generated

Judicial review grounds lodged in the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) on 26 June 2025 by a solicitors' firm cited four authorities that the judge could not find or that carried wrong citations and propositions. The firm's compliance officer, a solicitor whose name was on the claim form, said a junior fee-earner had drafted the grounds under his supervision; his written explanation named an outdated precedent, practitioner blogs and personal notes as the sources. After a Hamid hearing on 5 November 2025, the tribunal recorded that he accepted the fee-earner had relied on false citations generated by AI, and in a judgment promulgated on 17 November 2025 it referred him to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for the false citations and his failure to supervise. The tribunal said it does not matter how such errors come about. It also announced that the Upper Tribunal judicial review claim form now requires a statement of truth that cited authorities exist and support the propositions they are cited for.

Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 12/10/2026

Jan 2025ItalyUnidentified customer-service AI tool

Genoa court reinstates a Maersk Italia worker whose January 2025 dismissal unions linked to AI replacing customer service tasks

In January 2025 Maersk Italia, the Genoa-based Italian arm of the Danish logistics group, dismissed four employees of its Customer Service department without warning, according to the regional transport unions Filt Cgil, Fit Cisl and Uiltrasporti, who called a one-day strike. The unions said the company had moved the work to Manila and had also replaced part of the tasks done by the Genoa staff with artificial intelligence. One of the four, a woman, sued, while the other three accepted a severance offer. Euronews reported on 30 April 2026 that the Genoa labour court had ordered her reinstatement with compensation for the months she went unpaid, finding the dismissal unlawful because the employer had not tried to redeploy her within the company. A legal commentary in Domani gives the judgment's date as 30 March 2026, while Euronews says the decision came on Thursday, the eve of 1 May. The unions that backed the case described it as the first Italian case in which judges ruled on a dismissal linked to AI, although the Domani commentary also cites a Rome ruling of November 2025 on an AI-related dismissal. The Domani commentary does not name the employer. No source describes the AI system or what it did, and Maersk's account of the dismissals was not found.

AI relation unknown Medium reported severity Lawsuit Ongoing

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · Added 11/10/2026

Event date unknownFranceUnidentified image tool

Metz prosecutor says a soldier used the French armed forces' AI system to make nude images of two female colleagues; he is under formal investigation

The Metz deputy prosecutor told AFP in August 2026 that a soldier based in Moselle had used the artificial-intelligence system of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces to create images showing two female colleagues undressed, and that both colleagues had filed complaints against him. The prosecutor said the investigation also found more than 10,000 requests to the same system seeking child sexual abuse imagery, and that a search of his devices confirmed his use of the ministry's AI. Taken into custody on 22 July 2026, he admitted the facts according to the prosecutor and was placed under formal investigation and remanded in custody on 24 July. The judicial investigation includes the offence of disseminating algorithmically generated sexual content reproducing the image of a non-consenting person. When the colleague images were made and how widely they circulated are not stated.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 11/10/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified video tool

Lake County sheriff says an Illinois man used an online AI service to make sexual videos of a child relative and her mother from photos; charges filed

The Lake County Sheriff's Office in Illinois says that on 25 March 2026 a man from unincorporated Antioch told deputies a stranger had handed him a phone containing sexual videos of a young child he identified as a relative, and that he later admitted the story was fabricated. According to the sheriff's office, investigators found that he had taken photographs of the child and the child's mother and used an online service to generate sexually explicit videos from those images, including videos depicting the child, and a forensic analysis of his phone found further AI-generated videos exploiting the child and her mother. He was charged on 1 April 2026 with five counts of producing child pornography and is detained awaiting trial; the child was taken into protective custody. The service is not named, and the charges are allegations.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 11/10/2026

23 Jul 2026 to 31 Jul 2026IndiaUnidentified video tool

Delhi Police and fact-checkers say a viral video of a Delhi Police DCP resigning over student protests was AI-generated; FIR filed in Maharashtra

In late July 2026 a 44-to-47-second video circulated on social media in which Delhi Police Deputy Commissioner Sumit Jha appeared to announce that he was resigning "immediately" because the government had pressured him to implicate students protesting with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on false charges. The fact-checkers Alt News and BOOM traced the frames to a genuine Delhi Police video of 23 July in which the officer warned about Pakistan-based social media handles spreading misinformation. BOOM found a mismatch between the audio and his lip movements and said Deepfake O Meter tools flagged the clip as AI-generated. Alt News reported a 67% likelihood of AI generation from Detectvideo.AI. Delhi Police posted a fact check calling the video "completely fake and AI generated", and the Hindustan Times reports that the Press Information Bureau also said it was AI-generated. After a member of the BJP social media team saw the video in a post by a Congress leader on 31 July, Maharashtra Cyber Police registered an FIR against unknown persons for public mischief and cheating by personation. The officer is named because he is a senior public official depicted in his official role and the fact checks name him; no statement from him is reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources · Added 11/10/2026

17 Mar 2025United KingdomGoogle AI Mode (reported)

UK Upper Tribunal: immigration adviser gives Google AI Mode as his best guess for a non-existent case in grounds he drafted; he self-reported to regulators

In the first of two matters decided together in [2026] UKUT 81 (IAC), promulgated on 17 November 2025, the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) examined grounds of appeal dated 17 March 2025 that cited a non-existent Court of Appeal case under the citation of an unrelated equal-pay case. The adviser who drafted them first denied using AI, then told the tribunal his best guess was that he had inadvertently used Google's 'AI Mode', and the tribunal recorded that he had concluded it was probable the case came from inadvertent AI use; the panel itself got Google AI to produce varying benches for the fictitious case. He reported himself to the Immigration Advice Authority and the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and the tribunal said it would otherwise have referred him. He also told the tribunal that he had put client emails and uploaded Home Office decision letters into ChatGPT to summarise them, which he called a data breach he would disclose to the clients; the tribunal said such uploads breach client confidentiality and waive privilege.

Core concern Low reported severity Internal Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 11/10/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image tool

Namakkal, India: man arrested over obscene images of his wife's two sisters that a Tamil daily says he made with AI and threatened to post, Oct 2026

In the Kumarapalayam area of Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu, India, a man was arrested on Saturday 10 October 2026 after his wife's elder and younger sisters and their family complained to the Tiruchengode all-women police station. According to the Tamil daily Daily Thanthi, he had secretly collected ordinary photographs of the two women, turned them into obscene images using AI technology and threatened to share them on social media. Police investigating with cyber-crime officers confirmed that the morphed images were on his devices and seized his laptop and mobile phones. The account rests on one newspaper report; the tool is not named and no statement from the accused is reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 11/10/2026

Event date unknownArgentinaUnidentified image tool

La Banda, Argentina: mother tells police a former classmate put her daughter's photos onto naked bodies with AI and they were spread on WhatsApp, 8 Oct 2026

In La Banda, Santiago del Estero province, Argentina, a woman filed a police complaint on the evening of 8 October 2026 stating that a 15-year-old adolescent, a former classmate of her 15-year-old daughter, had taken photographs of the girl and modified them with artificial-intelligence tools, placing naked bodies on them, and that the images had then been published and spread in WhatsApp groups. Officers of the women's and family community police station and the departmental unit intervened, and the prosecutor ordered the material attached and the file raised to the prosecutor's office for investigation. The account rests on the police report as relayed by the local newspaper Diario Panorama; the tool is not named, and both the girl and the accused are minors.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 10/10/2026

Dec 2025 to Oct 2026IndiaUnidentified image and video tool

Rohtak district, India: POCSO case registered after a 17-year-old says two men made obscene AI images of her and used them to coerce repeated rape since 2025

Police in Rohtak district, Haryana, registered a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and rape provisions, reported on 8 October 2026, after a 17-year-old girl from a village in the district told them that two men who delivered building material to her home had taken photographs of her, made obscene photographs and videos from them with AI, and used the threat of posting the material on social media to force her to meet them and rape her repeatedly, according to Dainik Bhaskar and Jagmarg News (both 8 October 2026). In the complainant's account relayed by the two outlets, the first assault followed an Instagram message in December 2025, further assaults took place in January and March 2026, and the most recent on 5 October 2026, after which she collapsed in a lane near her home and told her family, who called the police. The district Child Welfare Committee said she has been counselled. The police statement quoted by Dainik Bhaskar describes a complaint of forced sexual acts by two men and an investigation, without mentioning AI; the AI claim rests on the complainant's account as relayed by the outlets. No arrest is reported and the accused have not been heard.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 09/10/2026

2 Oct 2026United StatesUnidentified AI drafting tool

Nebraska Supreme Court strikes a self-represented appellant's brief over fabricated citations from admitted AI use; plain-error review only (2 Oct 2026)

On 2 October 2026 the Nebraska Supreme Court struck the appellate brief of a self-represented party appealing a contempt order in his divorce case because the brief contained numerous citations to fictitious cases and misstatements of law, which the court said were the result of his admitted use of generative artificial intelligence. The court held that self-represented litigants are held to the same standard as attorneys and that submitting a brief relying on nonexistent authority is an abuse of the judicial process worthy of sanctions. Citing the novelty of the issue for self-represented parties, it stopped short of dismissing the appeal and reviewed only for plain error, finding none and affirming the district court's contempt finding, its sanction of 90 days' incarceration with purge conditions, a temporary reduction of his parenting time and an attorney-fee award. The court warned that in future cases dismissal of the appeal may follow. The opinion does not name the AI tool.

Core + contextual relations Low reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 1 source · Added 09/10/2026

17 Sept 2025 to 21 Sept 2026United KingdomChatGPT

UK Upper Tribunal: solicitors' ChatGPT-drafted grounds in an asylum appeal cited fake cases and invented quotes; two individuals self-report to the SRA

A published Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) decision issued on 21 September 2026 records that the grounds of appeal and skeleton argument in a Namibian national's protection appeal were produced by a paralegal at her then solicitors using ChatGPT. The tribunal recorded her counsel's acceptance that the grounds cited fake cases, quoted passages absent from those judgments and attributed to the First-tier judge sentences he never wrote, and itself called one purported quotation pure invention. The September 2025 error-of-law hearing was adjourned, and the appellant later withdrew three of her four original grounds. The tribunal allowed an amended version of her one surviving ground but found that it disclosed no error of law. It refused her permission to add two new grounds, holding that she should not be allowed to advance entirely new grounds, or replace grounds riddled with misrepresentations, so long after the time limit, and in the alternative found those grounds without merit. It directed the Home Office to file any wasted costs application against the firm. The decision states that two individuals have reported themselves to the Solicitors Regulation Authority; the Law Society Gazette reported the decision on 8 October 2026.

Core + contextual relations Low reported severity

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 09/10/2026

23 Dec 2025 to 28 Apr 2026United StatesUnidentified AI drafting tool

Former federal prosecutor in North Carolina publicly reprimanded after admitting that a brief with fabricated quotations was drafted with AI; he lost his post

In December 2025 an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of North Carolina filed a response brief for the Department of Defense in a self-represented veteran's lawsuit over health-insurance coverage. The plaintiff identified fabricated quotations and misdescribed case holdings in it. The attorney first attributed the errors to an unfinalized draft filed by mistake. On 2 March 2026 Magistrate Judge Robert T. Numbers II ordered him to show cause why he should not be sanctioned. At the 10 March hearing the attorney, Rudy Renfer, said under oath that he had accidentally overwritten his draft, panicked and used artificial intelligence to draft the brief, and had not verified the cases it cited; he said he had resigned after 17 years in the office, and Courthouse News reported he was terminated the next day. On 28 April 2026 the court issued a public reprimand instead of a fine, writing that his reputation was in tatters and that his job loss already exceeded the usual fines.

Core concern Medium reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 5 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 09/10/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool

Houston immigration attorney says scammers altered her photos with AI to pose as her office; a woman says her family lost about $11,000 (KHOU report)

KHOU reported on 7 October 2026 that a southwest Houston immigration attorney says people have been taking her photographs, altering them with artificial intelligence and using them on Facebook and Instagram to impersonate her office, with her image placed next to other people posing as attorneys. She says her firm has received calls from people who paid money to the impersonators and that she knows of more than 20 people who may have been targeted. One woman, interviewed by KHOU without her identity revealed, said her family lost about $11,000 after she was promised a permit to stay in the United States within a month and attended what the couple believed were meetings with immigration agents; she said she later discovered that the photo was fake and had been made with artificial intelligence. KHOU reports that people who say they lost money reported the alleged scheme to the Houston Police Department, which said the case will be assigned to an investigator; no arrest or platform response is reported, and the AI identification rests on the attorney's and the woman's accounts.

Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 08/10/2026

Cases may have several effects and sources. Mixed accounts qualify when they include a reported harm or adverse experience. People are counted within individual cases where sources support a number; we do not publish a collection-wide total of distinct people.

A source’s existence, the experience it reports and AI’s causal role are separate questions. A lawsuit records allegations unless a subsequent finding establishes them.

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Last dataset update: 04/11/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.