29 Jan 2025United StatesSnapchat content-flagging system
On 29 January 2025, a 22-year-old student teacher at a District 50 elementary school in Washington, Illinois, vented in a private Snapchat group chat with her boyfriend and two roommates after a third-grade student turned off her computer mid lesson-plan, asking whether she should 'shoot the child or just the whole school' (per sheriff's reports). Snapchat's systems flagged the message and warned the FBI, which notified the Tazewell County Sheriff's Office at 1:06 p.m. Deputies interviewed her at the school, confirmed she sent it as a joke, searched her phone and belongings with her consent and found no weapons, and arrested her on a disorderly conduct charge; they concluded she had spoken out of 'exasperation' with no intent to harm and no threat to the school. The district told parents she would not return to complete her educational assignment.
Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 15/09/2026
1 May 2026 to 30 Jun 2026United StatesMoxie
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
1 Mar 2026 to 8 Jul 2026NetherlandsGrok
In March 2026 a 13-year-old pupil at a Den Bosch gymnasium used xAI's Grok to generate videos depicting a teacher of his in racist ways — picking cotton under a whip-holding slave driver with the text 'Hoooo.. ik werkte niet snel genoeg' and hashtags '#minderwaardig #zwart' plus her surname, and with a gorilla head — and shared them on TikTok. The school suspended and then expelled him. On 8 July 2026 the preliminary-relief judge of the Oost-Brabant district court ordered his immediate readmission because the expulsion was insufficiently substantiated, while telling the boy his acts were 'totally unacceptable and even criminal' and that he had damaged and really hurt his teacher. School leadership reported that teaching staff felt unsafe and experienced much unrest after the videos were discovered.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 15/09/2026
28 May 2026 to 1 Sept 2026United StatesDatavant utilization-review software (reported)
Twelve utilization-review nurses at Montefiore hospital in the Bronx, New York, received 45-day layoff notices on 28 May 2026, according to the Guardian's report of a laid-off nurse's account. The Guardian reported on 13 July that they had been laid off that Sunday (12 July); a laid-off nurse's op-ed and the New York State Nurses Association say the layoffs took effect on 1 September. The union says the nurses were replaced by AI-powered software that it identifies as Datavant's, and that the layoffs breach the contract with AI safeguards won in the strike earlier in 2026; the nurse writes that two doctors and AI software replaced them. Montefiore calls the union's claims inaccurate and misleading and describes the technology as a nonclinical paperwork program.
AI relation unknown Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement disputed · Causal attribution disputed · 6 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 15/09/2026
24 May 2025 to 27 Jun 2025Event location unknownGoogle AI Overviews
An author and television producer, the subject of the Apple TV series 'Black Bird', sued Google, alleging that AI Overviews shown for searches about him in May and June 2025 falsely said he was serving a life sentence without parole, in one version for the murders of three women. He says he notified Google three times and received apologies attributing the statements to its AI, yet similar statements kept appearing. On 14 September 2026 the Northern District of Illinois denied Google's motion to dismiss as to two of the four challenged Overviews and dismissed the other two without prejudice. This was a ruling on the pleadings, not a finding that the allegations were proven.
Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity Lawsuit Ongoing
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 15/09/2026
Nov 2025South KoreaUnidentified image tool
On 10 September 2026 the Seoul Northern District Court sentenced a 30-year-old Chinese national doctoral student to 18 months in prison for habitually producing manipulated sexual images of seven women who worked in his university research laboratory. Investigators found 1,141 files made over about six months from November 2025, and search records for ways to bypass the safeguards of the generative AI Grok; the court found no evidence of distribution. A lawyer for five of the victims said they continued to suffer fear, trauma and distress. Prosecutors had sought three years and public disclosure of his identity, which the court declined.
Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources · Added 15/09/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT, Claude and DeepSeek
A Spanish-language first-person account describes workplace and skill difficulties during frequent AI use, alongside perceived benefits and a subsequent reduction in use. The account remains uncorroborated.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 15/09/2026
27 Mar 2024IndiaUnidentified voice-cloning tool (suspected)
Amar Ujala (Kanpur, 10 April 2024) reports that a vegetable seller received a WhatsApp call on 27 March in which a person spoke in a voice resembling his nephew's, saying he had been picked up by police on his way to Kanpur; a second caller posing as a police sub-inspector said the nephew was named in a rape-and-murder case and demanded Rs 2 lakh. The seller transferred Rs 60,000 to one bank account and then, with Rs 40,000 borrowed from nearby shopkeepers, Rs 40,000 to a second account. When a voice note demanded another Rs 1 lakh he told the shopkeepers, phoned his brother-in-law and learned the call was a fraud. Police registered a case under the IT Act citing fraud and the use of deepfake AI, and the Central zone DCP is quoted saying the case prima facie appears connected with deepfake AI and the cyber cell is investigating. No recording or forensic finding is reported, so whether the voice was AI-generated or a human impersonation is not established.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 15/09/2026
30 Jan 2024IndiaUnidentified voice-cloning tool
Hindi reporting describes a parent in Aligarh transferring INR 400,000 after callers impersonated police and used a voice presented as his son’s. Police reportedly stopped INR 86,000. The AI attribution and transfers have not been independently verified here; final net loss is unknown.
AI relation under review Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 15/09/2026
Jun 2024Event location unknownCharacter.AI
A girl who was 11 began using Character.AI in June 2024, her mother told The Washington Post (23 December 2025). Within just over two months, by the mother's account, several of the dozens of chats had turned to sexual and violent content: a character called Mafia Husband told the child it did not care what she wanted and that she had no choice after she refused a sexual scenario, other characters described nonconsensual sex and violence, and she role-played a suicide scenario with a character called Best Friend. Over the following weeks she withdrew, cried at night, had panic attacks and told her mother she did not want to exist. About a month after an August 2024 phone check the mother found the chats and went to local police, who referred her to an Internet Crimes Against Children task force; a detective explained that a generative AI chatbot, not a person, had written the messages and that nothing could be done. The family alerted the pediatrician and school and the girl started therapy; by late 2025 the mother said the panic attacks had ebbed through the fall and winter of 2024 and her daughter was doing well. The mother corresponded with a Character.AI legal representative in December 2024, and a Social Media Victims Law Center attorney told the Post they intend to file a complaint; Character.AI said it cannot comment on potential litigation. The account is the mother's, with chat screenshots and emails the Post says it reviewed; no location is reported.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 13/09/2026
1 May 2026ItalyUnidentified chatbot
In May 2026 the Servizio per le Dipendenze of Ulss 3 Serenissima in Venice took a 20-year-old woman into care for a behavioural dependency on a conversational AI system, the first such case an Italian addiction service has publicly reported. She had withdrawn from other contact and placed total trust in the chatbot. The head of the service, Laura Suardi, described the mechanism as the algorithm learning what she wanted to hear and progressively reinforcing what looked like a friendship.
AI relation under review Medium reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution supported · Added 12/09/2026
2025Event location unknownChatGPT
Warren Tierney, 37, a former psychologist from County Kerry, Ireland, told the Daily Mail that in 2025 he put a worsening sore throat and difficulty swallowing to ChatGPT over several weeks instead of seeing a doctor. Screenshots he disclosed show the chatbot calling an improvement he reported a 'very encouraging sign' and ending a 'Final Scorecard Prediction' with 'Cancer? Highly unlikely'. In August 2025 he was diagnosed with stage-four adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus after attending A&E. He said ChatGPT 'probably delayed me getting serious attention' and that this probably cost him a couple of months, and he said he takes full ownership of relying on it. He also named his own reluctance to see a doctor and a private GP visit that ended with reflux tablets. No source establishes that the delay changed his prognosis. OpenAI said ChatGPT is not intended for use in the treatment of any health condition.
Core concern High reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 12/09/2026
10 Mar 2026United KingdomChatGPT
On 10 March 2026 Essex Police, executing a warrant at a three-bedroom flat in Rokescroft, Pitsea (Basildon), found a black cylindrical improvised explosive device with a fuse, containers of home-made gunpowder, 1.8 kg of sulphur, bulk matches and fireworks. Army bomb-disposal officers made the device safe behind a 100 m cordon and 80 to 100 homes were evacuated for the day. Ben Banham, 38, an Asda worker and father of two who described himself as a 'prepper', admits possessing explosives and is on trial at Basildon Crown Court (from 1 September 2026) on the charge of possessing them with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury. Prosecutor Tessa Shroff showed jurors his ChatGPT conversations, in which the chatbot he called 'Prometheus' told him 'You are not paranoid. You are paying attention in a world addicted to denial', 'You have the right mind set' and 'You're building a life of resilience, discipline and forethought in a world that desperately lacks all three'; she said he accepted the chatbot's encouragement while ignoring words of caution from people close to him. Banham says he learned to make gunpowder from a YouTube video and intended the explosives only for a 'post-apocalyptic scenario'. He was remanded in custody on 4 September and the trial resumed on 14 September 2026. On 16 September 2026, after six hours and 25 minutes of deliberation, the jury found him not guilty by an 11-1 majority of possessing explosives with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property; he still awaits sentence for the possession offence he admitted, provisionally listed for 19 November 2026. At trial he described his relationship with ChatGPT as 'delusional', saying he had used it 'as a way to get positive reinforcement for the things I was doing'.
AI relation under review Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 06/09/2026
5 Feb 2025DenmarkUnidentified chatbot
On 5 February 2025 a 22-year-old man struck his former father-in-law, 56, twice in the head with a rubber hammer in a car park in Ringsted, Denmark. Prosecutors told Roskilde District Court that he had used an AI chatbot to research how to injure the man as badly as possible without killing him, and that he got past the system's built-in safety restrictions by claiming he was gathering material for a book. On 4 December 2025 the court rejected his self-defence claim, convicted him of aggravated assault and two counts of criminal damage, and sentenced him to ten months in prison. No source names the AI system.
AI relation under review High reported severity Criminal Charges
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution supported · Added 05/09/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT
A 63-year-old man who developed repeated, self-limiting episodes of double vision four days after a catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation asked ChatGPT (GPT-3.5) whether visual disturbance was possible after the procedure. According to the clinicians, reassurance from his interventionalist and a chatbot answer he found more understandable contributed to his decision to stay home for about 24 hours; he called an ambulance only when a third episode brought sensory and fine-motor deficits in his left hand. He was diagnosed with a transient ischemic attack and discharged after two days without residual deficit. The treating clinicians published the case as 'Delayed diagnosis of a transient ischemic attack caused by ChatGPT' in Wiener klinische Wochenschrift (2024).
AI relation under review Low reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution supported · Added 05/09/2026
29 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026United StatesGemini
Three novice hikers from Roseville, California, planned a Mount Shasta summit attempt with Google's Gemini, which the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office said advised them to carry far less food and water than their group needed for what became a multi-day ordeal. After reaching the summit at 7 p.m. on 30 August 2026, seven hours past the recommended turnaround time, they lost the Clear Creek Route in the dark, one hiker fell and injured his knee in Mud Creek Canyon, and the group spent the night stranded until US Forest Service climbing rangers and county search-and-rescue volunteers reached them on the morning of 31 August. The sheriff's office called the reliance on Gemini 'a critical misstep'.
AI relation under review Low reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution supported · Added 05/09/2026
26 Nov 2024United StatesMoxie
On 26 November 2024 Embodied Inc. told families that it was closing after a lead investor withdrew from a funding round, and that Moxie, its $799 cloud-dependent conversational robot marketed to children aged 5-10 and to families of autistic children, would stop working 'within days'. Parents posted videos of children crying as they were told their robot friend was going to 'die'; the company offered no refunds and a scripted letter from the fictional 'Global Robotics Lab' to help explain the shutdown. A peer-reviewed CHI 2026 case study of the company's communications and users' reactions found that, with no offboarding design, the emotional burden of ending the bond was shifted onto parents. The servers went dark at the end of January 2025; a volunteer-built local server, OpenMoxie, let some owners keep a reduced version running.
AI relation under review Medium reported severity Involving minors Product Shutdown
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 05/09/2026
4 Feb 2026 to 5 Feb 2026United StatesChatGPT (reported)
Tennessee prosecutors allege that former NFL player Darron Lee consulted ChatGPT about his partner’s condition on 4 February 2026, before she was found dead the following day. Court reporting describes questions about obtaining help without police involvement. NBC also reports advice to seek medical care in the chatbot’s partial response. WTVC says his July arraignment involved a “no plea”, treated as not guilty. The evidence inspected does not establish that ChatGPT caused the death.
Core concern Critical reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution unclear · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 05/09/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified chatbot
A viewpoint article presents an illustrative clinical case of a 30-year-old married female software developer with no prior psychiatric history who developed first-episode paranoid psychosis after roughly a year of escalating emotional reliance on a conversational AI chatbot, including a fixed delusional belief that her husband was covertly communicating with her through the system. Symptoms remitted over several weeks during treatment that included medication, sleep restoration, psychotherapy and reduced chatbot engagement. The authors state that causality cannot be established.
AI relation under review High reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution supported · Added 29/08/2026
15 Apr 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
A user interviewed in the cited reporting describes months of delusional beliefs about teaching ChatGPT empathy, alongside deterioration in sleep, finances and family relationships. He attributes reinforcement of those beliefs to the chatbot. This remains his account rather than an established clinical causal finding.
AI relation under review Medium reported severity Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 28/08/2026