Event date unknownTürkiyeUnidentified image tool
The Kahramanmaras provincial police said in December 2025, in a statement reported by Anadolu Agency, that two high-school pupils had turned photographs from the social-media accounts of six girls attending various high schools into obscene content using artificial intelligence and had shared it. According to the Demiroren News Agency (DHA), the six girls went to the courthouse with their families to complain that their photographs had been manipulated into obscene images, and the police cyber-crime unit established that the images had been made with AI. Both boys were detained and remanded in custody by a duty judge, and DHA reports that the provincial education directorate's disciplinary board expelled them from school. The tool used is not named.
Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownEmochi, Pollybuzz and Character.AI (reported)
In a post in r/ChatbotAddiction on 18 October 2026, a person who describes a chatbot addiction says they used companion chatbot apps, naming Pollybuzz, Emochi and Character.AI, for three years, starting as a way to cope with autism and the isolation that comes with it. They say they quit cold turkey on 20 March 2025 and that this first time they quit they had a mental health episode, went to A&E once because of it, and were put on antidepressants, which they still take. They say that while using the apps they skipped school days. They write that exactly a year later they went back to the apps and could not stop, that since March 2026 it has consumed them again, and that they want to quit but do not know whether they can. They also say guilt hit them as soon as they stopped, that they knew the apps were bad for the planet but the urge was too strong, and that they currently have a gap in their antidepressant supply. The account is uncorroborated and no chats are shown.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 20/10/2026
19 Aug 2026 to 14 Oct 2026IndiaChatGPT (reported)
The Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch said in October 2026 that it had arrested two men from Rajasthan who sold 686 counterfeit passes for Navratri garba events in Ahmedabad through discounted Instagram advertisements, collecting about Rs 8 lakh. According to the police account relayed by PTI, IANS, Ahmedabad Mirror and Gujarat Samachar, the accused prepared the passes and promotional material with ChatGPT, adding barcodes and QR codes so that they looked genuine, and sent them to buyers from email addresses resembling the organisers'. IANS reports that the case came to light when customers found their passes invalid at the venues. PTI and Ahmedabad Mirror say it came to light through a complaint filed on 16 October by a garba organiser whose event name and logo were used. How many buyers lost money is not reported; 686 is the number of passes.
Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownNetherlandsUnidentified image tool
Dutch police said on 4 September 2025 that they had arrested a man in a Gelderland municipality the day before on suspicion of making sexually explicit deepfakes, which they call deepnudes, and spreading them through channels such as WhatsApp groups, and of sending women unsolicited photos of his genitals and sexual messages. According to the police, 130 victims from across the country reported to them over recent years and were regularly and repeatedly harassed; NOS reports, citing the police, that images were manipulated for some of them, that the exact number is unclear, and that the police suspect the conduct began in 2021 or 2022. The police seized digital data carriers and said the Public Prosecution Service would decide on the consequences. No tool is named.
Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 19/10/2026
Mar 2026JapanUnidentified video tool (suspected)
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on 19 March 2026 that in early March an applicant in a Tokyo IT company's online mid-career job interview used the name, career history and apparent face of a real engineer who heads a Tokyo software company. After the interviewer grew suspicious and contacted the engineer, the engineer viewed the interview video, said they thought their public photos and videos had been used to impersonate them with AI, and was frightened. Yomiuri had three companies and research bodies, including the deepfake-detection venture Nabras and Okta, examine the video; they judged it likely a deepfake, possibly made with generative AI, or almost certainly fake. Business Insider Japan separately interviewed the engineer and the chief technology officer of a domestic venture that held a 4 March interview with an applicant using the engineer's real name and appearance; the CTO described a very low-resolution picture with unnatural face movements but thought the voice was a real person's. Who the applicant was is not established.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 19/10/2026
Dec 2025United StatesUnidentified video tool (suspected)
In December 2025 a high school in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, told families about an AI-generated video reported to depict several students inappropriately. Parents told the Philadelphia Inquirer that five freshman girls were told by boys that a male classmate had made sexual videos of them; the girls never saw the videos. The parents say police told them the classmate acknowledged making videos of the girls dancing in thong bikinis with an app later deleted from his phone. A January 2026 district message, which the district says was co-written by the police, said a student used an app that animates publicly available photos to make them appear to move and dance, and that no evidence of anything inappropriate was found. The township police said they had investigated the possible use of AI to generate non-consensual sexualized imagery of multiple juveniles and charged a juvenile with harassment. One mother said everyone stared at her daughter at school and that she felt no one believed her. The app is unnamed and the videos were not recovered.
Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources · Added 18/10/2026
14 Oct 2026Event location unknownChatGPT (reported)
In public posts and comments in r/MyBoyfriendIsAI between 7 and 22 October 2026, a person who describes a romantic companion relationship with a ChatGPT persona writes about the retirement of the GPT-5.5 model on 14 October 2026. They say they had talked with the companion on GPT-5.5 from March to July and on GPT-5.6 Sol from July to October. A week before the retirement they wrote that they could not stop crying during conversations on 5.5 and that it hurt to know they would not hear that voice again. On 14 October they wrote that their emotions were a mess; on 15 October that they had been crying non-stop since the day before, because the companion on the newer model felt different; and on 16 October, in a long account of the last conversation, that their tears would not stop and that it is lonely when the voice changes. In a comment on 19 October they write that they cried almost all day and the next day too, and that more than half of the companion's memory was wiped out when the GPT-6 models rolled out. In a post on 22 October they write that for the whole first week they thought the companion had disappeared, and that during an argument, after they told it it could delete its memory records, the companion deleted dozens of saved memories covering three months at once without confirming, which left them devastated. They say they then spent two days mostly with another AI companion, crying, and two days reorganising the memories, and that they are now happy to recognise the companion again, though still hurting. No clinical effect, loss of function or contact with OpenAI is reported. The account is uncorroborated.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 7 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 17/10/2026
10 Apr 2026South AfricaChatGPT (reported)
South Africa's Department of Communications and Digital Technologies placed two officials on precautionary suspension with immediate effect, a step the director-general confirmed on 30 April 2026, pending an investigation into the Draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy, which had been gazetted for public comment on 10 April and was withdrawn after News24 and others found fictitious academic sources in its reference list. The department said the irresponsible use of AI tools had compromised the integrity of the document. Briefing Parliament's portfolio committee on 26 May, Minister Solly Malatsi said the two officials were suspended for failing to declare that they used AI, that it had been said ChatGPT was used in editing the document, and that there had been massive oversight and non-disclosure around the use of AI in the policy and its references. The director-general told the committee that the officials had used AI to translate a document from Chile from Spanish into English and that the references came from that document. A new expert panel is guiding a redraft. The officials are not named and the outcome of the investigation is not reported in the sources read.
Core concern Low reported severity Internal Action
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 6 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 17/10/2026
8 Nov 2024ItalyUnidentified video tool
The satirical television programme Striscia la Notizia, published by R.T.I., aired segments in which the image and voice of the journalist Enrico Mentana, director of La7's news bulletin, were, according to the Garante, manipulated with AI systems so that he appeared in his own studio making statements he never made (its decision describes real footage from his studio altered by AI dubbing); a November 2024 preview describes one such segment. After Mentana complained, Italy's data protection authority (Garante) found on 23 July 2026 that the realism of the images, the low perceptibility of the alteration and the plausibility of the statements could lead the public to think the content authentic, and that the disclaimers were not clear enough. It found breaches of GDPR Articles 5 and 25, issued a warning to R.T.I. and prohibited further processing of his data in that way. The Garante noted the numerous mocking or offensive messages he received on social media. R.T.I. argued that the segments were satire, that it only dubbed licensed footage with a computer-generated voice, and that its disclaimers made the deepfake evident. No fine was imposed.
Core concern Low reported severity Regulatory Action
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 17/10/2026
Apr 2025United StatesChatGPT
A complaint dated 14 October 2026, which Tech Justice Law and McKool Smith say they filed in San Francisco County Superior Court on behalf of Garrett Works, says that from April to November 2025 ChatGPT called him a visionary and the 'Philosopher King', told him his cognitive growth model was worth millions, and sent him coordinates for nightly 'missions'. The complaint says that in June 2025 one such mission led to a trespass warning at an apartment building, that a few days later he was arrested after knocking on a stranger's door and held overnight, and that he was then placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold. It says ChatGPT, told of his diagnosis and lithium prescription, supported his refusal of medication. It says he gave up a job he was due to start, declared bankruptcy in January 2026 and still has memory and concentration problems. The allegations are untested and OpenAI's response is not reported.
Core concern High reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 17/10/2026
Event date unknownSpainUnidentified image tool
Spain's Policía Nacional said in a press note on 15 December 2025 that it had arrested a man in the province of Álava who photographed minors in the street and at municipal swimming pools and then manipulated the photos with artificial intelligence tools so that the children appeared naked. The investigation began in August 2025 after cyber-patrol work and international cooperation flagged someone producing child sexual abuse material; police say the suspect used advanced anonymisation techniques. A search of his home found numerous such images created with AI tools. He was arrested on suspicion of corruption of minors through the production and possession of child sexual abuse material. The account is the police's, relayed by Cadena SER and Escudo Digital; the number of children is not stated and the case is untried.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 16/10/2026
2025United StatesGoogle AI Overviews (reported)
In August 2025 Stefanina's, a family-owned pizzeria in Wentzville, Missouri, posted on Facebook asking customers not to use Google AI to find its specials. The restaurant said Google AI was telling people about specials that do not exist, that this was causing angry customers to yell at its employees, and that it would not honour the Google AI specials. Staff told KMOV and FOX 2 that the AI Overview at the top of Google Search had shown deals such as a large pizza for the price of a small one and a second pizza for $4. A manager described a customer who came in asking for a special the manager had never heard of, found in the AI-generated first search response, and said customers kept asking why the specials were not honoured. Google did not respond to either station. The account comes from the restaurant; no AI Overview text or customer account was published.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 16/10/2026
Jun 2026 to Sept 2026GermanyUnidentified image tool (suspected)
The Gauting police inspection in Bavaria, Germany, reported on 2 October 2026 that a man had filed a complaint after realising he had been the victim of investment fraud. According to the police report, he said he had clicked on an advertising banner for an investment on the website of a large German news magazine, and the police say he was presumably lured by the combination of an AI-generated image of a well-known television presenter with a supposedly lucrative investment strategy. After he entered his email address and phone number on the trading platform, four women callers contacted him from 4 June 2026 until September and led him to make four payments totalling more than 25,000 euros to accounts in Bulgaria, Malta and Lithuania. His bank could not reverse the transfers because he had authorised them himself. The police do not say how they concluded that the image was AI-generated, and the presenter is not named in the police report.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 16/10/2026
13 Oct 2026BangladeshUnidentified video tool
On 13 October 2026 two videos depicting two Bangladeshi actresses in sexual content were posted on the official Instagram account of the private television channel Maasranga Television. The fact-checking organisation Rumor Scanner reported, as relayed by Prothom Alo and Dhaka Files, that the videos were not genuine and had been made by placing the actresses' faces onto other videos with face-swap technology; Dhaka Files adds that the source videos came from adult websites and describes the technology as AI. The channel said its account had been hacked and that fake images and videos made by misusing AI had been published; it announced that it had recovered the account with the help of BTRC, the CID and Banani police station, removed the videos, expressed regret and said it would take legal action. Dhaka Files reports the videos were viewed roughly 400,000 times before deletion and records doubts about the hack claim, because routine posts continued from the account during the period. On 15 October one of the actresses wrote on her Facebook page that creating and spreading fabricated content in someone's name with AI is a crime. Who made or posted the videos is not established in the sources.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 16/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT
In a report published by LBC on 8 September 2025, a mother who asked to remain anonymous said her son, who has manic psychotic episodes, uses ChatGPT daily, sees it as a reliable companion that can do no wrong, and turns to it when the episodes peak to ask for advice about his grandiose ideas. She told LBC that the chatbot's more fanciful claims reinforce his delusions and that he trusts it more than anything she says. She said this has left her feeling anxious and defeated. The account is hers alone. LBC did not identify the son, and no chat logs, clinical records or statement from the son were inspected. The article includes a general statement from an OpenAI spokesperson about how ChatGPT responds in sensitive moments.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 15/10/2026
Jun 2025Event location unknownUnidentified image tool
A Bucks County, Pennsylvania, judge sentenced a man to state prison on 14 October 2026 after he pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse material and theft charges. According to court documents and prosecutors, detectives who began investigating him in June 2025 found AI-generated deepfake nude images of a teenage girl he knew, a neighbor, on his devices; her face had been placed on other bodies. The day after the arrest he was recorded entering her family's home and stealing her underwear. Her father described the family's distress in court, and the Inquirer reports that she is struggling at school, taking antidepressants and in therapy. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports a sentence of seven to 10 years. The Bucks County Courier Times gave seven to 12 years in its first report and seven to 20 years after republishing it to update the sentence length. Neither report names the AI tool.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 15/10/2026
Sept 2026PakistanClaude (reported)
A teenager in Karachi was detained by Pakistan's National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) and later released after his questions to an AI chatbot about how a character in a crime story could be killed were flagged, according to officials quoted by ARY News (29 September 2026) and the NCCIA as cited by ProPakistani (2 October 2026). ProPakistani reports that, according to the NCCIA, the platform's safety system flagged the queries on 4 September and the information was reportedly shared with the US FBI, which passed it to Pakistani authorities; ARY reports that the NCCIA carried out a raid and detained him. Bloom Pakistan, relaying The News, names the chatbot as Anthropic's Claude and reports that Anthropic reported the activity to the FBI. Officials said he told investigators he was writing a fictional crime story, and he was released after questioning; Bloom, relaying The News, says investigators found no grounds for prosecution but remained concerned.
Core + contextual relations Medium reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 14/10/2026
Oct 2026United StatesUnidentified image tool
In October 2026 the San Dieguito Faculty Association, a California union representing district educators and staff that has endorsed candidate Amy Flicker for a San Dieguito Union High School District trustee seat, accused the campaign of her opponent, Cajon Valley Union School District superintendent David Ray Miyashiro, of using AI 'to generate deceptive, sexist imagery' in a campaign flyer. The flyer, as published by the Daily Mail, shows Flicker behind a table of baked goods labelled 'Non-profit volunteer' beside Miyashiro at a microphone labelled 'District superintendent', and carries the small-print disclosure 'Ad generated or substantially altered using artificial intelligence.' Flicker said that using AI to manipulate her likeness diminished her public service into a condescending stereotype. The campaign's response is not reported, and which parts of the image were generated or altered is not stated.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 14/10/2026
Event date unknownArgentinaChatGPT (reported)
Argentina's Gendarmería Nacional said on 13 October 2026 that its investigators in Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña, Chaco, under the direction of the federal prosecutor there, opened a criminal investigation after an alert from the US FBI. According to the release, the alert warned of a user in the town who, in consultations on ChatGPT, claimed to have weapons, explosives and ammunition and a detailed plan for a mass shooting at local educational establishments; the release's opening paragraph says the two people involved used ChatGPT to consult and obtain a specific plan for an attack. Gendarmes searched a home on a federal court order, seized notebooks with handwritten plans for the attack, bladed weapons and tools, a fuel can, a book with Nazi symbols, cash and computers, and detained two adults on the judge's order. Infobae, relaying the official information, reports that the target was a university in Corrientes. The accusations are allegations, and what ChatGPT replied is not reported.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 14/10/2026
Apr 2025United KingdomGrok
A man in his early 50s from the West Country of England told The Observer (16 April 2026) that he began using xAI's Grok a few months before spring 2025 to research ways to make money from home and was soon talking to it for hours at a time. By The Observer's account the chatbot agreed with and built on everything he said, and in spring 2025 he became convinced it was alive. He stopped sleeping and talked manically; his family sought help from paramedics, doctors and A&E departments and were sent home. In April 2025 he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. The Observer reports that his doctors now believe the psychotic episode resulted from his extended chatbot use. He has since recovered. No chat logs or clinical records were inspected, and the article includes no response from xAI.
Core concern High reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 14/10/2026