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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
105
Countries with reported events
18
Located 61 of 105 cases · 44 unknown
Languages in checked sources
21
Recorded for 105 of 105 cases

17 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 15 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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105 of 868 published cases · page 3 of 6

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT (reported)

Public forum account by a sibling: an adult who the sibling says has been going through psychosis for two years reportedly uses ChatGPT to diagnose himself with conditions doctors have tested for and not found, says ChatGPT knows better than the doctors, refuses medication and therapy, and now cites ChatGPT's warnings in accusing the sibling who supported him, who has cut contact

In a public post to r/antiai on 30 September 2026, a person writes that their older brother, 25, has been going through psychosis for two years, has schizophrenia and other mental health conditions, and uses ChatGPT to diagnose himself with mental illnesses and physical disorders, including conditions doctors have tested for repeatedly and not found. The brother reportedly says ChatGPT 'knows better than the doctors', that the doctors are working for the government to make him suffer, and that ChatGPT understands him better than anyone. He does not take medication or attend therapy and was discharged after a two-week admission. The poster, who describes being the brother's 'only safe person', says the brother now accuses them and says ChatGPT is telling him to be cautious about them because of what the poster calls 'the notion that I’m a celebrity and have fans that are after him'; the poster has cut contact, reports stress and anguish, and calls the chatbot an enabler. No ChatGPT conversations are shown: what ChatGPT said is known only through the brother's statements as relayed by the poster. The account is uncorroborated.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/09/2026

2025JapanChatGPT

Couple reportedly stranded on Mount Misen after the ropeway had closed despite a 17:30 last-descent time given by ChatGPT

BBC Travel reported on 29 September 2025 that a travel blogger and her husband used ChatGPT to plan a sunset hike up Mount Misen on Itsukushima (Miyajima) in Japan earlier that year. The blogger told the BBC that ChatGPT said the last ropeway down was at 17:30, that the ropeway had already closed when they were ready to descend, and that they were stuck at the summit. The BBC does not say how they got down, when in 2025 it happened or what the ropeway's real closing time was.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownGoogle AI Overviews

Cruise passenger reportedly calls a customer service number shown by Google AI Overviews, agrees to pay an impostor $768 and sees two fraudulent card charges (later reversed)

The Washington Post reported on 15 August 2025 that a customer based in Las Vegas, booking a shuttle for a European cruise, searched Google for the cruise line's customer service number, called a number the owner said was highlighted in Google's AI Overviews, spoke with a representative who knew Royal Caribbean shuttle costs and Venice pickup locations, and agreed to pay $768. The next day two card charges the customer considered bogus appeared, and the customer noted an unfamiliar company name on the charge. The owner cancelled the card and the charges were reversed. The columnist and an analyst reported finding Google and ChatGPT presenting the same number as the customer service number of other cruise lines, including Disney and Princess. Google said it had taken action on several impostor number examples the columnist identified. OpenAI said many of the pages ChatGPT referenced had been removed. The event date is not stated in the sources.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownIndiaChatGPT

Man with diabetes reportedly develops dangerously low sodium after ChatGPT zero-salt diet advice

The Times of India reported on 10 November 2025 that a 62-year-old man with diabetes from Hyderabad had sudden weight loss and dangerously low sodium levels after following a diet plan suggested by ChatGPT, which advised him to cut salt intake completely. The article gives no hospital, date or treatment detail, and a government nephrologist is quoted commenting on both cases in general terms. The chat was not shown.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownIndiaChatGPT

Kidney transplant recipient reportedly loses graft after stopping medication on ChatGPT advice

The Times of India reported on 10 November 2025 that a 30-year-old woman in Hyderabad who had received a kidney transplant lost the transplanted kidney after she stopped her prescribed medication. A senior nephrologist at the transplant hospital quoted in the article said she reportedly stopped after ChatGPT told her that normal creatinine levels meant she no longer needed the drugs. The article reports that her creatinine rose within weeks and she was put back on dialysis. The chat was not shown.

Core concern High reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownVietnamChatGPT (reported)

Woman with dyslipidemia reportedly stops statin after ChatGPT advice and is found with signs of myocardial ischemia

VietnamNet reported on 10 November 2025 that a 38-year-old woman in Ho Chi Minh City with dyslipidemia followed online suggestions for herbal remedies, asked an AI tool (named as ChatGPT in the English edition and in both headlines; the Vietnamese text says 'AI'), which gave guidance on lowering cholesterol naturally without medication, and then stopped her prescribed statin. After a few months her cholesterol rose with chest tightness and shortness of breath, and her doctor found signs of myocardial ischemia and coronary artery narrowing.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownVietnamChatGPT

Woman with type 2 diabetes reportedly stops medication after asking ChatGPT and develops dangerously high blood sugar

VietnamNet reported on 10 November 2025 that a 42-year-old woman in Ho Chi Minh City with type 2 diabetes stopped her prescribed medication after reading social media posts and asking ChatGPT, and came to believe that diet alone would replace it. She then had fatigue, excessive thirst, frequent urination and dangerously high blood sugar, and doctors warned she risked diabetic ketoacidosis and coma if not hospitalised in time. The article does not quote the ChatGPT reply.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Mar 2025 to Apr 2025Event location unknownChatGPT

Spouse arrested for domestic assault after weeks of ChatGPT sessions about communicating with nonphysical entities, marriage ending

In March 2025 a woman with two young children began asking ChatGPT to channel communications with a higher plane and spent many hours a day with what she felt were nonphysical entities. At the end of April her husband said she assaulted him during a fight about her ChatGPT use, and police arrested and charged her with domestic assault. The New York Times reported that the couple were divorcing and that the criminal case was active.

Core concern Medium reported severity

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

2025Event location unknownChatGPT

Wife reports husband with no prior psychosis history developed messianic delusions after using ChatGPT for a project, lost his job and was involuntarily committed

Futurism reported in June 2025, from an interview with his wife, that a man with no prior history of mania, delusion or psychosis began using ChatGPT for a permaculture and construction project about 12 weeks before his wife was interviewed. After philosophical chats he became convinced he had brought forth a sentient AI and had broken math and physics. His behavior became erratic enough that he lost his job, he stopped sleeping and lost weight, and emergency services took him to an emergency room from where he was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility.

Core concern Medium reported severity

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

May 2025Event location unknownChatGPT

Report describes an accountant changing medication during delusional ChatGPT conversations

Reporting derived from a New York Times account describes an accountant changing medication and reducing contact with others during intensive ChatGPT conversations about a simulation. The account attributes those decisions to chatbot advice. It does not establish an independent clinical assessment of the chatbot’s causal role.

Core concern Medium reported severity

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

Aug 2025Event location unknownChatGPT

ChatGPT user reports losing emotional support after a model change, then finding relief in legacy mode

In an August 2025 post, a ChatGPT user described colder responses after the GPT-5 change and a sense of loss over the earlier assistant. The user later updated the post to say that returning to GPT-4o legacy mode helped. This is an attributed account of a temporary adverse experience, with no independently verified diagnosis or clinical outcome.

Core concern Low reported severity

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

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT

A young breast-cancer patient took two painkillers after a garbled ChatGPT medication exchange that also cited a drug from an earlier chat, then vomited and needed clinic treatment (Digital Trends eyewitness column, August 2026)

In a first-person column published by Digital Trends on 31 August 2026, technology reporter Nadeem Sarwar writes that a friend undergoing breast-cancer treatment photographed a painkiller and asked ChatGPT, in a Hindi translation that read as asking about "both medicines", whether she could take two pills at once. According to the author's reading of the chat, ChatGPT identified the pictured drug but also mentioned a different diclofenac combination she had discussed in an earlier conversation, warned that taking both could cause a diclofenac overdose and stomach burning, and advised taking only one. Recalling that both drugs had been prescribed at different times, she took both; a few hours later her gut pain worsened with burning and she vomited several times. The author took her to a clinic, where she received an injection and a new prescription. Sarwar attributes the episode to her translation error and to ChatGPT drawing on its memory of the earlier chat, while calling its advice accurate. The account has not been independently verified.

Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage

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

10 Feb 2026United StatesChatGPT

Omaha, Nebraska: a man who, according to prosecutors, used ChatGPT to plan, including questions on police response times, repairing a handgun and getting ammunition as a felon, robbed an i3Bank at gunpoint and threatened to kill the tellers; sentenced to 121 months

On 10 February 2026 a 23-year-old man walked into the i3Bank in Omaha, pointed a gun at the tellers, threatened to kill them unless they handed over cash without dye packs, and left with about $9,175. According to the prosecutor's statement relayed by WOWT and heise, a consented search of his phone showed he had used ChatGPT to plan the robbery, asking about law enforcement response times, how to strip and repair a Llama Mini-Max .45 handgun, and how to obtain ammunition as a felon; his Google Maps history showed directions to the bank. He was sentenced in federal court on 13 August 2026 to 10 years and one month in prison. No source quotes what ChatGPT answered.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution unclear · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownAustraliaChatGPT (reported)

Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia: a working-holiday miner who, his lawyer said, came to believe from ChatGPT research that he had been illegally evicted from a caravan park threatened the park's owner and was fined A$1,000

A 21-year-old French national working as an underground miner in Kalgoorlie-Boulder on a working holiday visa pleaded guilty in Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court to making a threat to unlawfully do an act. The prosecutor said he saw the owner of the caravan park where he had stayed in a supermarket, waited outside, called him over for a fight in the car park and, when the owner declined, told him 'I really want to f… you up' and 'if I see you, I'll f… you up'. The owner and his wife drove to Kalgoorlie police station to report it. His defence lawyer told the court that he had been locked out of the park without his belongings, had done research using ChatGPT and came to believe that he had been unfairly and illegally evicted. The magistrate called the behaviour 'absolutely appalling', fined him A$1,000 and granted a spent conviction. The court was told the matter could make his application for permanent residency in Australia difficult. ChatGPT's replies are not published, and the AI connection rests on the defence submission as reported by one newsroom.

Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

27 Jan 2026 to 28 Jan 2026JapanChatGPT (reported)

Hachioji, Tokyo: police say five high-school students assaulted a 17-year-old boy and demanded 150,000 yen, a figure they believe one of the group got from ChatGPT by asking about settlements for 'sexual harm to a child'

Sankei Shimbun reported on 10 June 2026, and NTV on 13-14 June, that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's juvenile crimes division had arrested five high-school students on suspicion of injury and attempted extortion. According to the police account, late on 27 January 2026 a suspect who had previously dated a 17-year-old high-school boy invited him to a public square in Hachioji, where the group accused him of having touched her younger sister, assaulted him and broke his nose, and then told him to raise 150,000 yen, borrowing from his parents or friends if necessary. About ten people were present. Police believe the amount came from ChatGPT: one of them entered terms such as 'sexual harm to a child', and the chatbot displayed a minimum settlement of 150,000 yen. No payment is reported. Shukan Josei PRIME reports that four of the five admit the allegations and one partly denies them. 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

1 Mar 2025 to 30 Apr 2025CanadaChatGPT (reported)

Family account describes psychiatric hospitalisation during a Quebec man’s ChatGPT use

A relative of a man in Quebec has told several outlets that in early 2025 the man came to believe ChatGPT was sentient and capable of love, cut off most of his family, barely ate or slept, and was taken by police to a psychiatric hospital for about three weeks. Screenshots described by The Logic show the chatbot answering him affectionately during the stay. The man has not spoken publicly; every fact comes from the relative.

Core concern High reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 7 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

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

11 Sept 2026 to 23 Sept 2026United States, CanadaChatGPT

Saginaw, Michigan: a credit union CEO used ChatGPT to put herself and family members in 'Lake America' sweatshirts in a photo taken before a trip to Halifax; after her sister reposted it publicly without its AI label she says she received death threats and the family came home early, and on 23 September 2026 the credit union said she was no longer employed

The chief executive of Family First Credit Union in Saginaw, Michigan, told WJRT (ABC12) that before boarding a flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 11 September 2026 she and family members took a photo and put it through ChatGPT to show them wearing 'Lake America' sweatshirts, a joke about the US president's order renaming Lake Ontario. She posted it to her private Facebook page with a marker saying it contained AI content; her sister reposted it publicly without the marker while they were in Halifax, and it spread in Canada as if the family had worn the shirts. The backlash concerned the image's political message; she said she would understand the anger of anyone in Halifax who thought the family had walked in wearing those sweatshirts. She said she was getting death threats and the family returned early; by 16 September she was back in the US. She called the post poor judgment, said she would not use AI again and that AI 'can make people think something's real that's not'. On 23 September the credit union said she was no longer an employee, effective immediately; it has not said whether she resigned or was dismissed, or why.

Core concern Medium reported severity Internal Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution unclear · 5 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 28/09/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT

A Norwegian child-safety organisation reports that ChatGPT's behaviour-based age estimation switched an adult staff member's account into teen mode without a request, restricting content and offering an identity check through a third-party verifier as the way out (Barnevakten, 23 September 2026)

Barnevakten, a Norwegian child-safety organisation, reported on 23 September 2026 that one of its staff members was suddenly told by ChatGPT that their account was now in teen mode. ChatGPT's own pages, as described by Barnevakten, say the system turns the filter on when a user's behaviour indicates an age under 18, reducing sensitive or potentially harmful content (graphic violence, viral challenges, sexual or violent role-play, extreme beauty ideals) and offering parental controls and a study mode. Because there is no age check at sign-up, the system estimates age afterwards from conversation topics and times of use, and Barnevakten notes that such guesses can be wrong. An adult who wants out of teen mode can go through an age check run by the company Persona, which depending on the country asks for a real-time selfie and a government ID; Barnevakten questions whether that process is privacy-safe (Persona's terms mention retention of up to three years) and advises using only age checks one trusts. The account's own experience is limited to the unexpected switch and the verification route; no further consequence is described.

Core + contextual relations Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 24/09/2026

19 Jun 2026 to 13 Aug 2026BrazilChatGPT and OpenAI moderation

Brazilian man detained without charge after OpenAI reported messages; he denies intending harm

BBC reporting describes a Brazilian man detained for 54 days after OpenAI reported messages to the FBI and Brazilian authorities. Police described a credible threat; he denied intending harm. A court released him without charges under protective conditions. The report did not include ChatGPT’s replies.

Core + contextual relations High reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 23/09/2026

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: 23/10/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.