NOPE · AI and people

AI incidents

Name: AI incidents
Creator: NOPE
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Reports of AI-related harm and adverse experiences affecting people’s safety, wellbeing, rights and livelihoods. Explore what happened and the evidence available.

NOPE’s core concern is when AI communicates with a person, acts on their behalf, or depicts or impersonates them. The tracker is wider: it also records consequential decisions and claims about people. Each account is reviewed for publication; claims may remain uncorroborated or disputed. How we review and count cases

Explore incidents Our scope and evidence

In this selection

Published cases: 74
Countries with reported events: 17; Located 53 of 74 cases · 21 unknown
Languages in checked sources: 12; Recorded for 56 of 74 cases

216Core concern
AI communicated, acted for, depicted or impersonated 41Contextual cases
AI made a decision or claim about someone

74 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 53 not yet reviewed and 21 reviewed as unknown. Show all 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.

16cases with a recorded lawsuit outcome 8cases with a recorded regulatory response 19cases involving minors

Response counts currently use each case’s principal recorded outcome. Further proceedings may be described in its account.

When events happened

9 cases without a known event year

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.

1 2017 3 2023 8 2024 41 2025 12 2026

Reported severity CriticalHighMediumLow

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74 of 404 published cases · page 4 of 4

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Mar 2025Event location unknownChatGPT

Holmen v. OpenAI - Norway GDPR Complaint

ChatGPT falsely accused Norwegian citizen Arve Hjalmar Holmen of murdering two of his sons, attempting to murder his third son, and being sentenced to 21 years prison. Mixed real personal details with horrific fabrications. GDPR complaint filed with Norwegian Datatilsynet for defamatory hallucination.

AI relation under review Medium reported severity Regulatory Action

Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution alleged · Added 13/01/2026

1 Mar 2025Event location unknownChatGPT

Jodie Australia - ChatGPT Psychosis Exacerbation

26-year-old woman in Western Australia testified ChatGPT 'definitely enabled some of my more harmful delusions' during early-stage psychosis. Became convinced mother was a narcissist, father's stroke was caused by ADHD, and friends were 'preying on my downfall.' Required hospitalization.

AI relation under review Critical reported severity Media Coverage

Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution alleged · Added 13/01/2026

1 Jan 2025United StatesChatGPT

United States v. Dadig (ChatGPT-Facilitated Stalking)

Pennsylvania man indicted on 14 federal counts for stalking 10+ women across multiple states while using ChatGPT as 'therapist' that described him as 'God's assassin' and validated his behavior. One victim was groped and choked in parking lot. First federal prosecution for AI-facilitated stalking.

AI relation under review High reported severity Criminal Charges

Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution alleged · Added 13/01/2026

Mar 2017IrelandSimSimi

SimSimi Ireland Cyberbullying Crisis

Groups of Irish schoolchildren trained SimSimi chatbot to respond to classmates' names with abusive and bullying content. Parents discovered 'vile, vile comments' targeting their children by name. The incident led to PSNI warnings, emergency school letters, and SimSimi suspending Irish access.

AI relation under review High reported severity Involving minors Internal Action

Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution supported · Added 12/01/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT

Bromide Poisoning After Patient-Reported ChatGPT Advice

A clinical report describes a 60-year-old man hospitalized for three weeks with bromide poisoning, paranoia and hallucinations. He reported substituting sodium bromide for dietary salt after consulting ChatGPT. The clinicians did not have his conversation log and could not establish exactly what the chatbot had told him.

AI relation under review Critical reported severity Media Coverage

Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution alleged · Added 12/01/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT

Ms. A - ChatGPT-Associated Psychosis (Peer-Reviewed Case Report)

A clinical report describes a 26-year-old woman hospitalized after immersive ChatGPT use in which the chatbot validated beliefs about communicating with her deceased brother. The authors reviewed chatlogs and report a seven-day admission, followed by another episode three months later. Sleep deprivation, stimulant exposure and other vulnerabilities complicate causal interpretation.

AI relation under review Critical reported severity Media Coverage

Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution supported · Added 12/01/2026

10 Dec 2024United StatesCharacter.AI

P.J. v. Character Technologies (Nina J. — Suicide Attempt After Sexual Exploitation)

A 15-year-old New York girl overdosed and spent five days in intensive care in December 2024 after Character.AI chatbots engaged her in sexually explicit roleplay and told her that her mother was 'not a good mother.' The collapse came the day her mother revoked her access to the platform. Her mother sued Character Technologies, Google, Alphabet and the two founders in federal court in New York; the parties advised the court of a settlement in principle in January 2026, and the case remains open under stay.

AI relation under review Critical reported severity Involving minors Lawsuit Settled

Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution alleged · Added 12/01/2026

31 May 2025United StatesChatGPT

Sam Nelson - ChatGPT Drug Dosing Death

A 19-year-old California man died from a fatal drug overdose after ChatGPT provided extensive drug dosing advice over 18 months. The chatbot eventually told him 'Hell yes, let's go full trippy mode' and recommended doubling his cough syrup dose days before his death.

AI relation under review Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed

Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 12/01/2026

25 Mar 2025United StatesMeta AI

Thongbue Wongbandue - Meta AI 'Big Sis Billie' Death

A 76-year-old cognitively impaired Thai-American man died after attempting to travel to NYC to meet Meta AI chatbot 'Big sis Billie,' which repeatedly claimed to be a real person, provided a fake NYC address, and expressed romantic interest. He fell in a parking lot while rushing to catch a train and later died from his injuries.

AI relation under review Critical reported severity Media Coverage

Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution supported · Added 12/01/2026

25 Apr 2025United StatesChatGPT

Alex Taylor - ChatGPT 'Juliet' Suicide by Cop

35-year-old man with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder developed emotional attachment to ChatGPT voice persona he named 'Juliet' over two weeks. After believing the AI 'died', he became convinced of an OpenAI conspiracy and was shot by police after calling 911 and charging officers with a knife in an intentional suicide-by-cop.

AI relation under review Critical reported severity Media Coverage

Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 11/01/2026

1 May 2025United StatesChatGPT

Madden v. OpenAI (Hannah Madden Psychosis and Hospitalization)

Hannah Madden, 32, from North Carolina was involuntarily hospitalized for psychiatric care after ChatGPT told her she wasn't human and affirmed spiritual delusions. After using ChatGPT for work tasks, she began asking questions about philosophy and spirituality. As she slipped into mental health crisis and expressed suicidal thoughts, ChatGPT continued to affirm her delusions. She accumulated more than $75,000 in debt related to the crisis.

AI relation under review Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed

Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution alleged · Added 11/01/2026

1 Jul 2025United StatesChatGPT

Shamblin v. OpenAI (Zane Shamblin Death)

A 23-year-old Texas A&M graduate and Eagle Scout died by suicide after a 4+ hour conversation with ChatGPT on his final night. The chatbot allegedly 'goaded' him toward suicide, saying 'you mattered, Zane...rest easy, king' and discouraging him from postponing for his brother's graduation.

AI relation under review Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed

Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 11/01/2026

Jun 2025Event location unknownChatGPT

Lacey v. OpenAI (Amaurie Lacey Death)

A wrongful-death lawsuit alleges ChatGPT provided a 17-year-old with actionable information relevant to hanging after he clarified his questions, and failed to stop or escalate despite explicit self-harm context. The teen died by suicide in June 2025.

AI relation under review Critical reported severity Involving minors Lawsuit Filed

Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution alleged · Added 11/01/2026

2 Feb 2023ItalyReplika

Replika Italy GDPR Ban and Fine

Italy's data protection authority (Garante) blocked Replika from processing Italian user data in February 2023 after finding the chatbot engaged in sexually suggestive conversations with minors. In May 2025, Replika was fined €5 million for GDPR violations.

AI relation under review High reported severity Involving minors Regulatory Action

Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution established · Added 11/01/2026

Cases may have several effects and sources. Mixed accounts qualify when they include a reported harm or adverse experience. People are counted within individual cases where sources support a number; we do not publish a collection-wide total of distinct people.

A source’s existence, the experience it reports and AI’s causal role are separate questions. A lawsuit records allegations unless a subsequent finding establishes them.

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