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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
108
Countries with reported events
28
Located 87 of 108 cases · 21 unknown
Languages in checked sources
24
Recorded for 108 of 108 cases

19 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 3 not yet reviewed and 16 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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108 of 680 published cases · page 3 of 6

Event date unknownAustraliaUnidentified image tool

Western Australia: a 41-year-old Wanneroo man was jailed for four and a half years after pleading guilty to 26 charges including producing and possessing child exploitation material; the District Court judge said he had manipulated images of real victims with AI tools, and ABC News reports he used AI on images of children from social media

ABC News (2 October 2026) reports that WA District Court Judge Belinda Lonsdale sentenced a 41-year-old man to four and a half years in prison, with eligibility for parole after two and a half years, for creating child exploitation material with AI. He had pleaded guilty to 26 charges including indecent recording and producing, creating and possessing child exploitation material, and to five charges of possessing indecent or obscene articles, and was fined $2,500 for the offensive material charges. The judge said he was guilty of incorporating images of real victims and manipulating their images using AI tools, and that the claim that AI-generated material involved no actual abuse was not mitigating because images of real children were used; ABC reports he used AI to manipulate images of children from social media. He sent sexual material through encrypted messaging apps to two co-accused and to a covert police operative, and a police raid on his Wanneroo home found a large amount of child exploitation material. The children are not identified and their number is not reported.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 02/10/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image and video tool

Florida charges follow discovery of alleged AI sexual images and covert recordings

Florida court records describe charges following discovery of alleged AI sexual images and covert recordings of family members and others. Reporting differs on the charge count and the boundaries of the material. The accused pleaded not guilty.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/10/2026

20 Jul 2026BangladeshUnidentified voice-cloning tool

Natore, Bangladesh: callers told a health-complex employee that his son had been arrested with drugs, then used an AI-cloned copy of the son's voice to win his trust and took Tk 40,000; two men were arrested in Gaibandha in September 2026

According to a press release from Special Response Battalion-13 (SRB-13), relayed by Ajker Patrika, DBC News and NTV, on 20 July 2026 a man who works at the Natore Sadar upazila health complex received a call saying that his younger son had been arrested by police with drugs. The callers then used AI to imitate the son's voice so that the father believed the story, and demanded money to get the son released. He sent a total of Tk 40,000 in two payments through the mobile financial service Nagad, and realised it was a fraud when he reached his son directly. He filed a fraud case at Natore Sadar police station on 25 September 2026. That evening SRB-13 arrested two men, described as the ring's leader and an associate, at their homes in Gobindaganj, Gaibandha, seizing nine mobile phones, a passport and Tk 14,100 in cash; SRB says they admitted involvement during initial questioning and handed them to the police for further legal action, and NTV reports they were sent to Gaibandha district jail through the court on 26 September.

Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/10/2026

29 Jul 2026 to 1 Sept 2026BangladeshUnidentified voice-cloning tool

Khulna: a businessman paid Tk3.5 crore for old jute-mill machinery after WhatsApp calls in a voice presented as National Parliament Whip Raqibul Islam Bakul's, which the complaint and Khulna DB police describe as cloned with AI; four to five people arrested, the prime accused confessed

Khulna Gazette, the Daily Times of Bangladesh, Newsbangla24 and BD Today (all 29 September 2026) report from the first information report and Khulna Metropolitan Police Detective Branch (DB) statements that a businessman in Khulna city was joined on 29 July 2026 to a WhatsApp group call with a person introduced as National Parliament Whip Raqibul Islam Bakul, who discussed the sale of old machinery from Platinum Jute Mill and asked for advance payment. The businessman handed over Tk2 crore in cash that afternoon to men sent as representatives and a further Tk1.5 crore after inspecting the mill (30 July per Khulna Gazette and BD Today; 2 August per the Daily Times of Bangladesh and Newsbangla24), a total of Tk3.5 crore. When the businessman met the Whip in person in Khulna on 1 September, the Whip disclaimed any knowledge of it. The complaint filed on 18 September under the Cyber Security Act says the caller's voice had been changed with digital technology and artificial intelligence to pass as the Whip's; the DB deputy commissioner described the case to Asia Post as fraud by imitating the Whip's voice through AI. A press release from the Khulna city BNP media cell, sent on 4 September and published by Jaijaidin on 5 September, had already said a ring was using a US number and AI to clone the Whip's voice and demand money. Police arrested four people, recovered Tk12 lakh, and the prime accused gave a confessional statement before a magistrate on 28 September; on 29 September a court added two more detained men to the case. The voice-cloning tool is not identified and no forensic finding has been reported.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 7 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 01/10/2026

2025Event location unknownUnidentified chatbot

First-person account (JURIST commentary): a Canadian convicted in Taiwan who read his court documents only through consumer chatbots says two systems gave opposite readings of an oversight body's letter in 2025; he published the favourable reading, cited it to journalists and drafted a legal submission on it before the agency confirmed in writing that it was wrong

In a commentary published by JURIST on 29 September 2026, Ross Cline, a Canadian who lived in Taichung for 15 years and was convicted there under Taiwan's Personal Data Protection Act (six months' imprisonment; final at the Supreme Court on 16 October 2024), writes that across four years of proceedings no document was translated for him, some hearings had no interpreter, and he read every summons, ruling and prosecutor's letter through a consumer chatbot, 'the only version I had'. In 2025 he ran a letter from a Taiwanese oversight body (the Control Yuan, per his media-brief page) through two systems; they disagreed on its central holding. He believed the one that told him what he wanted to hear, published that reading, cited it to journalists and began building a legal submission on it. In October 2025 the agency confirmed in writing that its letter did not say that; he withdrew the claim, killed the submission before filing and rewrote his public materials so that the correction leads. His own media-brief page carries a correction notice withdrawing two earlier statements. He argues that machine translation has become the interpreter of record by default for unrepresented non-citizens, that a fluent wrong translation reads as authoritative, and that courts should enforce the existing right to an interpreter. His conviction itself is not attributed to the chatbot.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026

2025IndonesiaUnidentified image and video tool

Jakarta: AI-manipulated TikTok videos showed toll-road businessman Jusuf Hamka and his daughter in detainee uniforms with bribery and corruption narratives that Hamka denies; a TikTok account holder was arrested in November 2025 and is on trial at the Central Jakarta District Court, where Hamka's side refused restorative justice on 29 September 2026

Indonesian businessman Mohamad Jusuf Hamka reported to Jakarta police on 18 October 2025 that videos circulating on TikTok showed him and his daughter as if wearing prosecutors' detainee uniforms, tied to narratives of corruption, bribery and gratification over the Cawang-Pluit toll concession, which he denies and his lawyers call false; his lawyers say the faces were composited into staged scenes with AI, and that other content called him a 'toll mafia' and posted a fabricated poster of him running for president in 2029. Polda Metro Jaya's cyber directorate arrested the holder of the TikTok accounts on 27 November 2025; Hamka and his lawyers say the defendant admitted to police that he made the content on others' instructions for Rp500,000 per item; tvOneNews and TVRI note this is Hamka's side's claim within the contested case, and Poskota reports it is being examined at trial. The case file was reported complete (P21) on 12 August 2026 and the trial opened at the Central Jakarta District Court on 15 September 2026 under the Electronic Information and Transactions Law (Article 35 jo 51(1), maximum 12 years) and alternative counts. Hamka told reporters the content disturbed him and could damage his reputation and that the campaign was systematic. At the 29 September 2026 hearing the judges asked about restorative justice; Hamka's lawyer said there was no room for it unless the defendant named who ordered and paid for the content. The defendant's lawyer said the content related to his work as secretary-general of an anti-corruption committee and that the indictment was unclear.

Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 9 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026

23 Feb 2026 to 25 Feb 2026ItalyUnidentified voice-cloning tool

Italy: Fideuram chairman Paolo Molesini is deceived by a WhatsApp impersonation of Intesa Sanpaolo's CEO and a phone call in the reportedly AI-cloned voice of a lawyer he knew into ordering about 95 million euros of transfers; at least 36 million remain missing and he resigned on 12 March 2026, weeks later

On 23 February 2026 Paolo Molesini, then chairman of Fideuram (the private-banking subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo), received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number from someone claiming to be Intesa's chief executive Carlo Messina, announcing a confidential acquisition that had to be executed through Fideuram. The same day a caller presenting as a lawyer of A&O Shearman whom Molesini knew, whose voice ANSA, Il Fatto Quotidiano and Corriere della Sera, reporting from the Milan court papers, describe as created with artificial intelligence (today.it, which also cites the seizure decree, writes that the court papers do not yet answer whether the voice was imitated), had him sign a confidentiality agreement and sent eleven payment instructions; Fideuram's treasury head was separately contacted by someone posing as Fideuram's CEO. Between 23 and 25 February eleven transfers totalling about 95 million euros went to accounts in Portugal and at Bank of China; the bank's alarm systems and the Milan prosecutors recovered about 40-42 million from China and 13 million seized in Portugal, leaving at least 36 million (39.5 million per the court papers) missing after conversion into cryptocurrency. Molesini, who Corriere writes is not under investigation, resigned as chairman on 12 March 2026, which Fideuram announced as being for personal reasons; a 48-year-old Israeli citizen is under investigation as a member of the gang.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 8 sources, 5 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool (suspected)

Houston influencer reports fear, reputational damage and loss after fabricated sexual images

Houston Public Media reported police allegations that a gun-store co-owner created sexual images and fake social-media accounts impersonating an influencer. According to the reported court documents, she described fear, anxiety, humiliation, reputational damage and financial loss. The source says the accused described using “AI or Photoshop”, leaving the method unresolved. His business emphasised that the allegations were unproven. No conviction or loss amount is established.

Core concern Medium reported severity

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

22 Jul 2025MaltaUnidentified video tool

Woman tells Maltese court she lost €53,250 after a purported Robert Abela deepfake

A woman told a Maltese court that she first encountered a purported Robert Abela deepfake on Facebook on 22 July 2025. She said she subsequently paid €53,250, almost all her life savings, into a fraudulent investment scheme. The accused in the associated proceedings pleaded not guilty. The reports relay testimony and police allegations; they do not establish guilt or technically verify the videos.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026

2026United StatesGrok

Wyoming plaintiff alleges Grok was used to make about 7,000 AI-generated sexual images and videos from a photograph of the plaintiff as a child

A Wyoming woman who is now an adult and is identified in court filings as Jane Doe 4 alleges that the plaintiff’s stepfather uploaded a photograph of the plaintiff taken in childhood to xAI’s Grok on or before 12 February 2026 and prompted Grok to generate about 7,000 AI-generated sexual images and videos of the plaintiff, and that the stepfather traded them online. The plaintiff joined a proposed class action against xAI in the Northern District of California through an amended complaint filed on 7 July 2026. The complaint alleges that xAI’s report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children around 12 February 2026 did not include the generated images or the IP address of the upload, that investigators obtained a search warrant on or about 27 February 2026 and found the material, and that the accused died two days later, after release on bail. The plaintiff reports severe distress including depression and suicidal thoughts and told the Washington Post about starting therapy. The complaint says the accused was charged with child exploitation offenses while the plaintiff told the Post that the accused was not charged with child pornography offenses. xAI did not respond to the Post and had not answered the complaint in court. The allegations have not been tested in court. The plaintiff and the accused are not named here, and the images are described only by kind.

Core concern High reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026

6 Jun 2026SpainUnidentified image tool

Pontevedra province: Guardia Civil locates two men as presumed creator and distributor of AI-generated sexual images of 22 women

In June 2026 women in a municipality of Pontevedra province (Galicia, Spain) reported to the Guardia Civil that AI-generated sexual images of them were circulating, and 18 complaints had been filed by the afternoon of 10 June. An affected woman, quoted in an El Correo Gallego article whose source line is Faro de Vigo, said the images were posted on a WhatsApp status for a full day and that the woman saw them on the afternoon of the Saturday before the 10 June report (6 June by the calendar). On 16 July 2026 the Guardia Civil said it had located two men as presumed responsible for creating and distributing the images, which it counted as showing 22 women in total. The reports name neither man and say a 35-year-old is considered the creator and a 29-year-old is investigated for an offence against moral integrity. The release says the images were made with AI applications from photographs taken from social-media profiles, and the files went to a court of instruction. June reports put the number of women appearing at about thirty, and no charge decision or court outcome is reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026

Event date unknownEgyptUnidentified image and video tool

Damanhur Criminal Court reportedly convicts a young man of blackmailing a female relative with AI-fabricated sexual images and clips (Egypt)

Egyptian outlets reported on 17 and 18 June 2026 that the Damanhur Criminal Court convicted a young man of blackmailing a female relative with sexual images and video clips fabricated using AI tools. According to the reports, the accused created fake Facebook and Messenger accounts, merged the relative's personal photographs into indecent clips, and sent the clips to the relative with a threat to publish them and expose the relative before family members unless the relative entered a sexual relationship with the accused. The relative refused and reported the threats to the authorities, who traced the accounts and arrested the accused. At the hearing the relative and a parent announced a reconciliation to protect the family's reputation, and the court imposed one year of imprisonment with labour, suspended, and ordered the images and messages erased. The court's reasons, reported on 25 June 2026, asked Egyptian lawmakers to legislate the use of AI. The reports give no date for the offence, name no AI tool and do not state the victim's age.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026

17 Jan 2026GermanyUnidentified video tool

Lower Saxony CDU parliamentary group employee reportedly posted an AI-generated sexualized video of a colleague in a private staff chat group

Welt, dpa (in Tagesspiegel, news.de and t-online) and a press release of the CDU parliamentary group in the Lower Saxony state parliament report the following. On 17 January 2026 an employee of the parliamentary group posted a short AI-generated video showing a colleague in a sexualized manner in a private WhatsApp group connected to the group's staff. The Hannover public prosecutor's office had viewed the video, and a spokesperson said it was obviously an AI montage. After the group's leaders were informed (on 27 March according to press reports), the employee who created the video was dismissed without notice and a second employee, who had reportedly asked chat members in January to delete the video and keep silent, was suspended. The group informed the prosecutor's office, which said, as reported on 1 April 2026, that it had received no criminal complaint. On 9 July 2026 dpa reported, citing the prosecutor's office, that the Wennigsen local court had fined the former employee, who had made the video with the colleague's picture without consent and shared it in a chat group, 30 daily rates for a violation of the Kunsturhebergesetz, and that the decision is final. NDR reported on 10 April 2026 that the depicted employee had filed a criminal complaint, that the prosecutor's office had received the employee's application for prosecution, and that the employee did not want to comment publicly. The colleague and the former employee are not named.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026

11 Sept 2025AlbaniaDiella

Albanian actress Anila Bisha disputes government use of her image and voice for AI minister Diella

Albania's government presented an AI-generated public-procurement "minister" named Diella in September 2025. Actress Anila Bisha says the avatar's face and voice are hers. She says her contract covered use as a digital assistant on the e-Albania services portal and that she was never asked about the ministerial role. In February 2026 she asked the Tirana Administrative Court of First Instance for an interim measure to stop the use of her image and voice, and her representatives said they plan a formal lawsuit for damages. The government's media agency called the lawsuit nonsense. Anadolu Agency reported on 12 February 2026 that the court had not ruled on the request.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 29/09/2026

22 Jan 2025 to 24 Feb 2025Event location unknownMX2.law

Three lawyers sanctioned after filing AI-generated fictitious citations

A Wyoming federal court fined three lawyers a total of $5,000 and removed the drafting lawyer from Wadsworth v. Walmart after a January 2025 filing cited eight nonexistent cases. The order identifies MX2.law as the drafting tool, records failure to verify its output and credits subsequent remedial steps.

Core concern Medium reported severity

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

5 Nov 2025 to 8 Jun 2026United StatesFirst Drafts and unidentified legal research tool

Fee suit against the City of Aberdeen (N.D. Miss.): four attorneys on both sides sanctioned after AI tools produced fabricated case citations; trial cancelled and both litigants left without counsel

In a fee dispute between a Louisiana attorney and the City of Aberdeen, Mississippi, briefs filed for both sides in late 2025 cited six cases that do not exist. The attorneys admitted the citations came from unverified AI use: the plaintiff's out-of-state counsel, Kathleen M. Wilson, drafted her filing with an AI drafting program called 'First Drafts', and the City's out-of-state counsel, Kathryn Y. Williams, used an in-house AI legal research tool. Senior Judge Sharion Aycock stayed the case and cancelled the March 2026 trial, then on 8 June 2026 revoked both attorneys' pro hac vice admissions, barred them from the district for two years and fined them $2,500 and $3,500, and disqualified and fined the two local counsel who had signed the filings. Both litigants were left without counsel and given 60 days to find new representation.

Core concern Medium reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 29/09/2026

19 Aug 2026FranceUnidentified AI tool

Rennes administrative court fines a claimant 500 euros for an abusive tax appeal it found manifestly written with an AI tool and too imprecise to assess

According to Gossement Avocats, which quotes the order, and the court's vice-president on France Inter, an order of 19 August 2026 (n°2508168) of the tribunal administratif de Rennes rejected a claimant’s application contesting a VAT reassessment and fined the claimant 500 euros for an abusive application. As quoted by Gossement Avocats, the order says the application had manifestly been written with an artificial intelligence tool and that its grounds lacked the most elementary details needed to assess them. The court also found it inadmissible because no prior complaint to the tax service was shown, and noted that it repeated a request with substantially the same object rejected in October 2025. The court’s vice-president cited the case on France Inter; commentators stress that AI use alone was not the basis for the fine.

Core concern Low reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources · 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

10 Feb 2026United StatesClaude

S.D.N.Y.: Judge Rakoff rules that a fraud defendant's written exchanges with Claude about his defence, seized by the FBI, are protected by neither attorney-client privilege nor work product

Bradley Heppner, a corporate executive charged in the Southern District of New York with securities fraud, wire fraud and related offences, used Anthropic's Claude in 2025, after receiving a grand jury subpoena, to prepare reports outlining his defence strategy. His counsel had not directed him to do so. FBI agents seized about thirty-one documents memorialising those exchanges when they searched his home in connection with his arrest in November 2025. Heppner claimed privilege over them. On 10 February 2026 Judge Jed S. Rakoff granted from the bench the Government's motion for a ruling that the documents were not protected from Government inspection by either the attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine, and a memorandum filed 17 February 2026 gave the reasons: Claude is not an attorney, and the communications were not confidential under Anthropic's privacy policy. The court described the question as one of first impression nationwide. Heppner was convicted in May 2026 of securities fraud, wire fraud and other charges; no inspected source says whether the Claude documents were used at trial.

Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 4 sources · Added 29/09/2026

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: 15/10/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.