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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 is wider: it also records consequential decisions and claims about people. Each account is reviewed for publication; claims may remain uncorroborated or disputed. How we review and count cases

In this selection

Published cases
81
Countries with reported events
23
Located 72 of 81 cases · 9 unknown
Languages in checked sources
16
Recorded for 76 of 81 cases

21 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 19 not yet reviewed and 2 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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81 of 404 published cases · page 2 of 5

12 Sept 2026 to 23 Sept 2026PakistanClaude (reported)

Bahawalpur, Pakistan: a 17-year-old accused of putting methanol in his father's food is arrested after Anthropic reported his Claude chats about the failed poisoning to the FBI, which alerted Pakistan's cybercrime agency; he was later bailed

Pakistan's National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) announced on 23 September 2026 that it had arrested a 17-year-old college student in Bahawalpur for allegedly attempting to poison his father. According to the agency and the First Information Report, the teenager had set up a home laboratory, obtained chemicals from Australia and Islamabad, and once mixed laboratory-grade methanol into his father's food, without effect. The News reports investigators' account that on 12 September he told Anthropic's Claude that his father had 'accidentally' ingested 15 to 20 ml of methanol with food without effect and asked why, that Claude refused to guide him further, and that he then turned to Grok and ChatGPT; the FIR says he sought information about the toxin abrin. Anthropic reported the activity to the FBI, whose information reached the NCCIA through Pakistan's foreign ministry on 22 September. Officers traced the teenager, seized his phone and chemicals, and took him into custody. The News reports that a court later granted him bail after his father forgave him and that he denied any plan. The allegations are untested.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownUnited KingdomUnidentified image tool

Colchester, Essex: a 39-year-old man admitted making indecent images of children after the prosecution said he had used AI on photos taken from social media, including of children as young as nine, to create sexualised images of people known to him; he is due to be sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court

The Colchester Gazette (24 September 2026, also carried by other Newsquest titles) reports that a 39-year-old man from Colchester admitted at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court three counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing an extreme pornographic image. Police had seized two mobile devices in a raid on his address the previous year, holding nearly 2,000 indecent images of children. The prosecutor said he had created 'deepfake sexually explicit images of people known to the defendant', taking photos from Facebook and other social-media accounts and using AI to create new images; some of the children were as young as 12 and nine and had been edited to look as young as five and six. Magistrates declined jurisdiction and he was bailed to be sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on 26 October 2026. The children are not identified and how many real children were depicted is not reported.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image and video tool

Portland, Tennessee: a man who prosecutors say used AI to put children's faces onto sexual images and videos and traded them with a Canadian resident for real child sexual abuse material was sentenced to 30 years in Sumner County in September 2026

The Sumner County (18th Judicial District) District Attorney's Office said a 30-year-old Portland, Tennessee man was sentenced in Sumner County Criminal Court in September 2026 to 30 years in the Tennessee Department of Correction, to be served without probation, parole or early release. According to the prosecutors, he used artificial intelligence to place the faces of children onto images and videos of nude people and of people engaged in sexual acts, then exchanged the material with a Canadian resident for real child sexual abuse material. Canadian authorities found messages and material connected to him after arresting the person he was communicating with and alerted US law enforcement; a joint investigation by Portland police, Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and the TBI led to his arrest in November 2025. He was also charged with tampering with evidence after investigators said he deleted material before officers entered his home to execute a search warrant. The children whose faces were used are not identified, their number is not reported, and the reports do not say which AI tool was used or which offences he was convicted of.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 28/09/2026

Sept 2026GermanyUnidentified image tool

Oldenburg, Germany: numerous messages sent through one or more student accounts on Oldenburg schools' email servers contained AI-manipulated deepfake images of children and young people, some of which police say may meet the offence of distributing child or youth sexual abuse material, alongside threats of violence and calls to self-harm; students and parents reported it and police are investigating (September 2026)

The Oldenburg-Stadt police inspectorate said on 22 September 2026 that in the preceding days numerous messages had been sent through one or more student accounts on the email servers of Oldenburg schools. The messages contained, among other things, deepfakes (manipulated depictions of children and young people); on an initial assessment some of these could constitute the offence of distributing child or youth sexual abuse material, and some messages contained threats of violence and calls for recipients to harm themselves. According to dpa, students and parents reported the incidents to the police, and dpa, reporting a police spokesman, describes the images as made with artificial intelligence (the written police statement calls them deepfakes, manipulated depictions, without naming AI). Investigators are examining whether unknown persons gained unauthorised access to the accounts; first digital traces were secured and the police are working with the affected schools. RND reports that the accounts were on the IServ school platform, whose provider said it had no access to the messages and believed the incident was limited to Oldenburg. The exact number of schools (the police refer to 'the affected schools', plural), messages, depicted children and recipients, and who created the images, are not reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 27/09/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool

Gilmer County, Georgia: a vendor who restocked drink machines in local schools used AI applications to turn ordinary photographs of students into child sexual abuse material; prosecutors identified more than 150 underage victims, he was convicted on 118 counts and sentenced on 2 September 2026 to 40 years in prison, and parents of eight students sued Pepsi entities for keeping him on the school route

According to the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted the case as conflict prosecutor, the investigation began in December 2024 when a Gilmer High School student told a school resource officer that a vendor who refilled drink machines on campus had asked her through a social media app to send him pictures. The Gilmer County Sheriff's Office arrested him in January 2025 and searched his devices, car and home. Prosecutors say he downloaded photographs of minors from social media and used AI applications and bots to alter them so the children appeared nude or engaged in sexual activity, and that the material related to more than 150 underage victims in Georgia and other states, many of them Gilmer County students. A Cobb County senior judge found him guilty on 13 August 2026 of 118 counts of sexual exploitation of children and on 2 September 2026, after 19 victim impact statements, sentenced him to 60 years with 40 to serve in prison. Separately, the parents of eight female students aged 12 to 17 sued him, Pepsi Beverage Co. and Pepsi-Cola Sales and Distribution in a suit reported on 28 February 2025, alleging the companies reinstated him to the same school route after students complained that he was photographing them; USA Herald reported the negligence suit again on 26 September 2026 and said Pepsi had not yet responded publicly. The AI tools are not named and the court and status of the civil suit are not reported.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 8 sources, 5 underlying accounts · Added 27/09/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified video tool

Bansdih, Ballia (Uttar Pradesh): a father reports that a local youth made a fake Instagram account in his 17-year-old daughter's name and an AI-generated obscene video from her photograph, sent it to her classmates, friends and relatives, and threatened to kill the family when they objected; police register a case under the IT Act (22-23 September 2026)

The father of a 17-year-old Class 12 student in Bansdih, Ballia district, Uttar Pradesh, gave the Bansdih police a written complaint that a young man from the town, a former schoolmate who had been expelled from the school and bore a grudge against the family, took screenshots of his daughter's social-media account, created a fake Instagram ID in her name with a matching photograph, used AI technology to make an obscene video from her photo and circulated it to her classmates, friends and relatives; the complaint says the youth had earlier made two fake accounts using her and her mother's photographs and threatened to kill the whole family and to spread the video further when they objected (Dainik Bhaskar, Hindustan). The father submitted screenshots of the fake account and his daughter's mark-sheet as proof of her age. The station house officer said a case had been ordered registered and the investigation begun; Jagran reports the case under the Information Technology Act. The reports give no dates for the fake accounts, the video or its circulation; September 2026 is the month of the complaint (about 21-22 September) and of the circulation and threats the family describes as continuing, so the event date is recorded as unknown. The family is described as frightened. No arrest is reported.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources · Added 26/09/2026

15 Sept 2026 to 16 Sept 2026IndonesiaUnidentified image tool

East Jakarta: police confirm a grade-9 student at a state junior high school edited several female schoolmates' photographs with AI into indecent images that circulated as WhatsApp stickers; a social-media post said about 200 images were sold; the student was later beaten by schoolmates angry at the images (police statements differ on whether the depicted students or their friends did so) and both matters are under police investigation (Kompas, ANTARA, detik, VIVA, Media Indonesia, 23-24 September 2026)

On 23 September 2026 the spokesperson of the East Jakarta metropolitan police (Polres Metro Jakarta Timur) confirmed to reporters that a grade-9 student at a state junior high school in Pulogadung, East Jakarta, had edited photographs of several female schoolmates using artificial intelligence so that they appeared indecent, and that the edited images had been made into WhatsApp stickers; the police women-and-children protection unit is investigating. The case surfaced through a post on Threads which said about 200 edited photographs had been produced and sold to others; Kompas.com noted on 24 September that the sale allegation still rested only on that post, VIVA reported that police were still checking the claim that the images had been sold, and ANTARA reported on 23 September that police were still establishing the editing method, the recipients and the number of depicted students. As of 24 September the depicted students had not filed a report (detik and VIVA date the spokesperson's telephone remarks 'Kamis (22/9/2026)', a date that is internally inconsistent) and police appealed to them to do so. According to the parents' account relayed by police, on 15 and 16 September several people took the student who made the images to an empty house and then to a reservoir in Kayu Putih, punched him on the nose, ears and head, kicked his chest and stomach and threatened him with a bladed weapon; police attribute the beating to friends of the depicted students (ANTARA, detik, VIVA), while Kompas.com's 23 September report quotes the same spokesperson as saying the depicted students themselves beat him; he filed an assault report, which police are handling alongside the image case, and the school has held mediation with the students' parents. No student or school is named in the reports.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 8 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 25/09/2026

Event date unknownSpainUnidentified image tool

Logroño: the Guardia Civil investigates a 14-year-old who took photographs of nine underage classmates from their public social-media profiles, used AI tools to strip and sexualise them, and uploaded the fake images to an adult pornography website under a profile describing them as girls from his school made with AI, organised in folders with each girl's personal details; the images reached about 40,000 views before removal (reported 14 July 2026)

On 14 July 2026 Spain's Interior Ministry published a Guardia Civil release stating that a 14-year-old from Logroño was under investigation as the presumed author of offences of discovery and disclosure of secrets, corruption of minors and child pornography. Investigators from the technology investigation team (EDITE) and Equipo@ found that he knew all nine victims, all minors and classmates, followed them on social media, took their photographs from the public content of their profiles without consent, and used artificial-intelligence tools to manipulate the images, digitally undress and sexualise them. He uploaded the fake pornographic material to an adult pornography website, created a profile there describing the content as girls from his school made with AI, and organised it in individual folders with each victim's personal data, which the Guardia Civil says made the girls recognisable and multiplied the emotional and social harm. Before the content could be removed it had reached about 40,000 views, amplifying the harm to the nine girls' privacy within hours. The proceedings were passed to the juvenile prosecutor under the juvenile criminal responsibility law; the release notes that parents or guardians are jointly liable for moral damages. Diario de León (Europa Press, 26 July) placed the case in a series of Spanish school cases since Almendralejo in 2023 and, unlike the release, described the minor as having been arrested.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 23/09/2026

19 Jun 2026GermanyUnidentified image tool

Berlin-Weißensee: two pupils of the Heinz-Brandt-Schule are suspected of creating and distributing AI-generated sexualised nude images of female classmates in at least three cases; the school suspended them and sanctioned pupils who are said to have known and not reported, and the police's sexual-offences unit investigates with liability under section 184c StGB (youth pornography) under consideration

On 'the previous Friday' (19 June 2026, read relative to the 24 June 2026 report) the leadership of the Heinz-Brandt-Schule in Berlin-Weißensee (Pankow district) learned that two of its pupils were suspected of having created and distributed AI-generated sexualised nude images of female classmates; the school wrote to parents that it was 'shocked and appalled' that classmates' photographs had been abused in this way and described the alleged acts as a massive attack on the personality rights of the affected girls and a form of sexualised violence. The two pupils alleged to be mainly responsible were suspended from lessons with immediate effect, and the school imposed measures on pupils who are said to have known about the images without reporting them. The Senate Department for Education confirmed the incidents and the ongoing investigation in the Tagesspiegel's report of 24 June 2026. The school's letter says the investigation is conducted on behalf of the public prosecutor. A Berlin police spokesman said complaints had been filed over the creation of so-called deepfakes, that the investigation had been taken over by the State Criminal Police Office unit responsible for sexual offences against minors, and that criminal liability for possessing, obtaining, creating or distributing youth pornography under section 184c of the Criminal Code was under consideration; the police gave no further details, citing victim protection. At least three cases are alleged. The school said it would revise its prevention and sex-education concepts and asked parents to talk to their children about handling other people's photographs and AI applications. Nobody is named; the number of girls depicted is not reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 22/09/2026

17 Sept 2026United StatesUnidentified image tool

Henderson, Kentucky: police identified AI-generated nude images of two middle-school children on a device after a report that such images were being created and shown to other students at South Middle School; a juvenile was lodged at the juvenile detention centre on charges of distributing sexually explicit images without consent and possessing and distributing matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor

Henderson Police said that on 'last Thursday' (17 September 2026) they received a report that AI-generated nude images of children were being created and shown to other students at South Middle School in Henderson, Kentucky. During the investigation officers found and identified AI-generated photographs of two minor victims on a digital device. A juvenile accused of sharing the images was lodged at the Juvenile Detention Center on three charge types: distribution of sexually explicit images without consent; two counts of possession or viewing of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor over 12 and under 18; and distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor over 12 and under 18. The school said on Monday 21 September that it was aware of a situation involving a student allegedly misusing artificial intelligence and inappropriate images, that the police investigation was active and that it had remained in communication with the families involved. 14 News (WFIE) reported the case on 21 September; WKYT carried the same report. The tool is not named. The depicted children's exact ages are not reported, though the charge descriptors put them between 12 and 18. The accused is described as a South Middle School student; the accused's age and any relationship to the depicted children beyond attending the same school are not reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 22/09/2026

Aug 2026United StatesUnidentified image tool

Cookeville, Tennessee: two high-school students were charged with aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor after the sheriff's office said they used an AI program to turn photographs, including those of female classmates, into sexually explicit images and posted them; the mother of one depicted girl says her daughter shut herself in her room and stopped talking to friends

On 31 August 2026 the Putnam County Sheriff's Office was told of possible sharing of sexually explicit images at Cookeville High School. Detectives found that two male teenage students had used an artificial-intelligence program to turn photographs obtained online, in some cases photographs of fellow female students, into sexually explicit images, and had shared them; explicit images already stored on one phone were also shared. Both juveniles were taken to the Putnam County Juvenile Detention Center. One was charged with one count each of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor and especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, the other with two counts of each. The district attorney told NewsChannel 5 on 21 September that the two would be prosecuted in juvenile court. The mother of one of the depicted girls told the station the episode was very hard on her daughter, who had made no naked photographs herself, locked herself in her room and would not talk to her, to anybody or to her friends. The sheriff's-office account and the school system's statement were carried by WZTV, WSMV and 3B Media News on 1-2 September; NewsChannel 5 added its own interviews with the sheriff, the district attorney and the mother on 21 September. The tool is not named. The juveniles are not named in any report.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 22/09/2026

Dec 2025MalaysiaUnidentified image tool

Muar, Johor: three boys were expelled from a Chinese secondary school for using AI to make indecent deepfake images of female classmates; some images spread online and at least two girls lodged police reports

In early December 2025 a Chinese secondary school in Muar, Johor, expelled three male pupils in Forms 2, 3 and 4 after finding they had used AI software to composite several female classmates' faces onto indecent images, some of which had spread online. The school said it was told of the images on Monday 1 December, investigated immediately, met the parents of all pupils involved, expelled the three under its rules with a stated zero-tolerance policy, and urged victims to lodge police reports and parents to delete any such images. The boys' parents accepted the decision. At least two girls lodged police reports; the Muar district police chief confirmed reports had been received, that the boys had been summoned to assist the investigation, and that an investigation was under way. No charge or later outcome has been reported.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 20/09/2026

Apr 2025MalaysiaUnidentified image tool

Kulai, Johor: a 16-year-old pupil was arrested and charged after AI-edited nude images of schoolmates and alumni, including minors, were sold online at RM2 each; police logged 29 victim reports and the principal resigned

In April 2025 Johor police arrested a 16-year-old pupil of a private Chinese independent secondary school in Kulai district after an 18-year-old woman reported on 3 April that nude images edited with her face were circulating on social media and being offered for sale. Police said the boy used an AI application to edit photos taken from victims' social media accounts and sold the images at RM2 each; a phone was seized and a 19-year-old was later remanded alongside him. Eight victim reports at the time of the arrest on 8 April grew to 22 by 12 April and 29 by 15 April. The Deputy Communications Minister, who is also the Kulai MP, said on 9 April that most victims were alumni but some were current pupils as young as 14, and on 12 April that 38 people had been identified, the youngest 12 or 13, and her office helped victims lodge reports. A female pupil's viral post said a Telegram chat room of more than 200 members shared the composites and that the school had initially treated the matter as a minor infraction; the school board expelled the boy, acknowledged its slow handling, offered counselling and legal aid, and the principal resigned on 12 April. On 23 April 2025 the boy pleaded guilty at the Kulai Magistrate's Court to possessing 14 pornographic images and not guilty to a charge under Section 5 of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 of producing sexual abuse material by editing a 17-year-old classmate's image; no verdict on that charge has been found.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 12 sources, 8 underlying accounts · Added 20/09/2026

2025IndonesiaUnidentified image and video tool

Cileungsi, Bogor Regency, Indonesia: photographs of private-school pupils taken from social media were turned into AI pornographic images and videos, reportedly since 2025; three pupils have filed a joint police report, the victims' lawyer says hundreds were affected, and two former pupils are named as suspects

Bogor Regency police confirmed on 18 September 2026 that they are investigating a report that pupils of a private school in Cileungsi had their faces edited with artificial intelligence into pornographic content. The head of the women-and-children unit told Kumparan that so far three pupils had reported in a single police report, that the case began when a victim heard from a friend that someone was making content with their face using AI technology, and that investigators were still establishing who made the content and which program was used, under the Electronic Information and Transactions Law. A lawyer for the witnesses, quoted by Pojok Bogor and Uzone, says the victims number in the hundreds; that two former pupils, one as initiator and one as maker, have been reported and admitted the acts to witnesses; that police found thousands of suspected AI-manipulated photos and videos on a suspect's phone, some uploaded to websites including an online-gambling site; and that the case, reported on 19 May 2026, is believed to have run since 2025 while all involved were still pupils, some victims now being university students. Police say the case is at an early stage and asked the public not to draw conclusions.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 19/09/2026

1 Oct 2024SwitzerlandChatGPT

Zurich-Oerlikon, Switzerland: a student who researched killing methods, anatomy and where to find children with ChatGPT stabbed three five-year-olds walking to their daycare; sentenced on 18 September 2026 to 15 years for multiple attempted murder

At midday on 1 October 2024 a Chinese master's student, then 23, attacked a group of five-year-old kindergarten children walking with a daycare worker to their after-school Hort near Berninaplatz in Zurich-Oerlikon with a kitchen knife. Two boys suffered life-threatening neck and chest wounds (one had the jugular vein severed, one the pericardium and aorta cut); a third was wounded in the ear and the shoulder or lung. The daycare worker held the attacker's arms until he dropped the knife. The indictment and the court's oral reasoning, as reported by NZZ, Keystone-SDA/ATS and CH Media, describe weeks of preparation from summer 2024: he discussed ways of killing and their legal consequences with ChatGPT, studied anatomy, bought raw beef to practise stabbing, and used ChatGPT to find out where and when children could be encountered in Zurich. No source quotes the prompts or ChatGPT's replies. On 18 September 2026 the Zurich District Court convicted him of multiple attempted murder and imposed 15 years' imprisonment, treatment during custody, a 15-year expulsion from Switzerland and CHF 106,000 in moral damages to the three boys; it accepted that he was psychotic but found diminished, not absent, criminal responsibility. His lawyer announced an appeal. The parents of one boy described nightmares, self-blame and scars 23 months on.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution unclear · 7 sources, 5 underlying accounts · Added 19/09/2026

2 Sept 2026United StatesMeta AI

Utah: Meta AI's suggested prompts under a mother's Instagram video compiled her young daughters' names, birth details and old photos and her likely home location; Meta said the prompts 'missed the mark' and changed the feature

On 1 September 2026 Kalie Robins, a Utah travel creator, posted a short Instagram video of herself singing in the car with one of her daughters; it was also shown on Facebook. The next day she noticed Meta AI had placed suggested questions under the post, starting with 'Who's the child passenger?'. Clicking the prompts, she said, produced her two daughters' names, birth information, photos and videos drawn from her own and relatives' past posts, including a newborn photo from her mother's account and a picture she believed she had deleted years earlier, and a further prompt, 'Where does Kalie Robins live?', assembled older and newer posts into her likely location. Her 2 September reaction video drew more than 310,000 likes. Meta told reporters the prompts 'missed the mark', 'should never have been generated' and had been fixed, while saying the feature only surfaces information the user can already access; it disputed that a long-deleted photo was used, saying the photo had been deleted shortly before the video and remained briefly visible through a bug. Robins said Meta never contacted her and that the episode left her feeling she had 'failed' her children.

Contextual tracker case Low reported severity Involving minors Internal Action

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources · Added 18/09/2026

16 May 2026United StatesGemini (reported)

Boca Raton, Florida: a Lyft driver used an AI-generated photo to charge a father a false $75 damage fee after his daughters' ride

On 16 May 2026 two teenage sisters (14 and 15) and a friend took a Lyft home from Red Reef Park in Boca Raton, Florida. Their father, Bert Gor, was then charged a $75 damage fee after the driver told Lyft's customer service the girls had left a mess. When Gor asked for proof, the photo he was sent carried a Google Gemini watermark that one daughter recognised, showing the image had been AI-generated. Lyft agreed the image was fake, reimbursed the charge and permanently removed the driver from its platform.

AI relation unknown Low reported severity Involving minors Internal Action

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources · Added 17/09/2026

Aug 2024South KoreaUnidentified image tool

Incheon, South Korea: teenager sentenced to up to two years for AI deepfake sexual images of five teachers and six students, distributed on Telegram with the victims' names and schools

On 16 September 2026 the Incheon District Court sentenced a teenage defendant to an indeterminate term of two years (maximum) to one year six months (minimum) under the Sexual Violence Punishment Act for making and distributing false sexual images, ordered a 40-hour treatment programme and a five-year ban on working with children, and took him into custody in court. As a middle-school student in Incheon in 2024 he had used AI deepfake technology to composite the faces of five teachers, including his homeroom teacher whom he tricked into sending photographs, and six female middle- and high-school students from his taekwondo academy onto nude images and videos, 35 productions in all, and distributed them in Telegram 'acquaintance humiliation' chat rooms with the victims' real names, ages, schools, subjects and, per two reports, phone numbers (Hankook Ilbo adds Instagram IDs on some). The teachers learned of the images only in January 2026; the court said they are receiving long-term psychological treatment. He had withdrawn from school a week before the teachers'-rights committee met, avoiding school discipline. The Incheon teachers' union called the sentence, below the prosecution's request, regrettable.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 5 sources · Added 16/09/2026

1 Jul 2026 to 14 Jul 2026BrazilUnidentified video tool

Brazil: scammers used AI-cloned voices and images of children with cancer in fake donation campaigns; 16 arrested in Operação Sophia

On 14 July 2026 the Rio Grande do Sul Civil Police launched Operação Sophia against a group that used AI voice cloning and deepfake to turn real fundraising campaigns of children with cancer into fake donation appeals: AI-generated child voices asked for money in videos boosted by pages such as 'Clube de Doadores' and 'Unidos pelo Amor', leading donors to lookalike sites that issued Pix codes to shell companies. Sixteen people were arrested across five states. In the campaign that started the investigation — using the image of Kelen Santos's daughter, who was in cancer treatment — police traced R$294,500 diverted, and the investigation found a financial-hub company that moved more than R$1.7 million. The family had to tell congratulating donors that their money had gone to a scam.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 15/09/2026

1 May 2026 to 30 Jun 2026United StatesMoxie

Moxie revived in 2025 folds again in 2026: children who bonded with the companion robot face a second shutdown

After Embodied Inc.'s 2024 collapse (recorded in the held case 2024-moxie-embodied-shutdown-grief), a new investor revived the Moxie companion robot in 2025. MIT Technology Review reports that a few weeks after families joined the revived beta program, the robot's new owners announced their company was also folding, giving users until the end of June 2026 to migrate to the open-source OpenMoxie. The report documents Xander, a neurodivergent 10-year-old in New York, who bonded with Moxie and uses her 'when I feel like I need someone to talk to'; his father, who had quietly sold the first robot after the 2024 shutdown, said he was not sure what he would tell Xander this time.

Core concern Low reported severity Involving minors Product Shutdown

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 15/09/2026

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: 30/09/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.