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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
127
Countries with reported events
33
Located 113 of 127 cases · 14 unknown
Languages in checked sources
26
Recorded for 127 of 127 cases

4 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 2 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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127 of 1099 published cases · page 5 of 7

Event date unknownSpainUnidentified video tool

Spanish police arrest a man in Murcia suspected of using real-time AI face modification and forged ID cards to impersonate more than 30 real people in video identity checks for electronic signature certificates

Spain's Policía Nacional said on 11 August 2026 that it had arrested in Murcia a suspect who tried to obtain electronic signature certificates in other people's names from a company that issues them. During the company's video identity checks the suspect appeared on camera holding a forged DNI identity card while AI software modified the suspect's face in real time to match the photo on the forged document. Police say the suspect made 38 attempts using the identities of more than 30 real citizens and succeeded in impersonating multiple victims, aiming to use the signatures for later scams. A short processing delay in the face-modification software made the digital mask disappear for barely a second, exposing the suspect's real face to the issuer's security staff.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/10/2026

Mar 2026IndiaUnidentified image tool

Chandigarh: a PhD scholar says a man posing as an IPS officer took cash, gold and a laptop; Dainik Bhaskar reports police found his uniform photo was AI-made

A PhD scholar in Chandigarh told police that in March 2026 she found a man's profile on a matrimonial site showing him in uniform, and that he presented himself at different times as an excise assistant commissioner, an IPS officer and a RAW agent. Dainik Bhaskar reported on 29 September 2026 that the police investigation found the IPS uniform photo on the profile was not real and had been made with the help of AI; no officer is quoted on this, and the other reports read do not mention AI. According to her complaint, he took about Rs 11.5 lakh in cash, gold jewellery and a laptop with promises of marriage and a government job; the Tribune adds about Rs 7.88 lakh in online transfers between March and June, and police put the total at about Rs 30 lakh. Bhaskar reports that he had a bank account opened in her name with her documents and kept its passbook, ATM card and SIM card until the bank froze it over suspicious transactions. When she asked for her money and belongings back, he threatened to circulate her photographs on social media; the Tribune adds a threat of harm to her brother. A case was registered in August. Police arrested a man from Rohtak, Haryana, who was produced in court on Monday 28 September 2026 and remanded for one day.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/10/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image and video tool

Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh: police register a case after a woman's family says a relative from Uttar Pradesh used AI to make obscene photos and videos of her and, over seven to eight months, extorted about ₹50 lakh from her with threats to circulate them and to kill her husband and children

Nai Dunia reported on 1 October 2026 that police in Neemuch City, Madhya Pradesh, had registered a case against a man from Shahjahanpur district, Uttar Pradesh, who is a relative of a local woman through her own family (the complainant husband's in-laws' side). According to the complaint filed by her husband, the man used AI to edit photos and videos of the woman into obscene, objectionable material, sent them to her phone and blackmailed her. When she resisted he threatened to kill her husband and two children, and he threatened to spread the material to shame her socially and within the family. Over about seven to eight months, the complaint says, he sent QR codes of 20 to 25 different people to her phone and extracted roughly ₹50 lakh in 50 to 60 payments, which she sent through a neighbour and other women. The man had lived in the family's home and worked at the husband's business for about six months two to two and a half years earlier, which the complainant says gave him knowledge of the family's income and property. Nai Dunia reported that police were investigating and trying to arrest the accused. The account is the complainant's as reported by one newspaper; the images were not inspected.

Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened

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

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool

Court records say a Florida woman found AI-manipulated sexual images of herself, friends and family on her husband's phone; he faces separate voyeurism charges

A county sheriff's report and court documents, as reported by three Tampa Bay outlets on 30 September 2026, say a woman found sexual images of herself, friends and family members on her husband's phone that had been made or altered with AI. He was arrested on 25 September 2026. The voyeurism charges he faces concern separate alleged hidden-camera recordings, not the AI images, and reports give different counts. He has pleaded not guilty and was released on bond under a no-contact order. The AI tool is not named.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/10/2026

Jul 2026ChinaUnidentified AI voice-calling system

Chinese police report over 1,000 fraud victims in a scheme using automated AI calls

According to police in Yueqing, Zhejiang, as reported by CCTV's Fazhi Zaixian programme on 29 September 2026, a man in Yueqing who wanted to borrow money for his child's summer tuition in July 2026 received a call from a supposed loan-platform agent who knew his borrowing history. Guided by the agent, he took out a 15,500-yuan loan on a legitimate platform and then transferred 5,500 yuan as a supposed 'funder's advance' and 10,000 yuan for supposed repayment, losing the whole amount. His report led police to a call centre in an office building in Changsha, Hunan. Police say the ring paid for accounts on an AI platform, loaded illegally obtained phone numbers, and let an AI voice system call people automatically with recorded scripts that responded to keywords, sorting them into six categories and transferring interested people to human operators; another victim said he had not realised the voice was a robot until police told him. Police say the ring defrauded more than a thousand people in two months, with victims including recent graduates and middle-aged and older people. CCTV reported 30 suspects detained on suspicion of fraud, more than 1 million yuan frozen and transactions above 10 million yuan. On 12 October 2026 Wenzhou News, reporting the same Yueqing police case, gave a cumulative total of more than 90 people detained, with the same frozen-funds and transaction figures.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

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

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

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

Event date unknownHong Kong SAR ChinaUnidentified image and video tool

Hong Kong police report deepfake romance-investment fraud targeting people across Asia

Hong Kong police described a syndicate that used deepfake romantic personas to induce investments by people in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. SCMP reported alleged criminal proceeds exceeding HK$34 million and a January 2025 operation arresting thirty-one suspects. An official police budget reply separately identifies that January operation and the amount involved. The Standard reported on 10 February 2026 that police had charged nine more suspects, bringing the number prosecuted to 14, all for conspiracy to defraud and four also for dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence. No verdict or sentence is reported in the sources read. The first scam date, number of affected people and individual loss allocations are unknown. A different October 2024 operation involving twenty-seven arrests is kept separate.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image tool

Delhi police report AI-edited sexual images used to harass a former partner

Delhi police said they arrested a man in July 2025 after a former partner complained that her photographs were being misused online. According to the police account reported by The Indian Express, he used AI tools to create sexual images and circulated them through fake Instagram accounts, also impersonating her identity. Police described a sustained harassment campaign and said they recovered a smartphone for examination. The start of the campaign and the later case outcome are unknown.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · 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

Event date unknownSpainUnidentified image tool

Palma student reportedly arrested over AI-generated sexual images of five classmates

On 15 February 2025 Spanish outlets reported a Policia Nacional note saying a minor had been detained in Palma on a corruption-of-minors charge. According to the note, the student took photographs of classmates from their social media profiles and altered them with an AI application to create AI-generated sexual images, and is believed to have sent them to others. Police identified five victims (El Pais: at least five). Relatives said the images looked real at first glance. The case went to the Balearic juvenile prosecutor's office. The creation date, the AI application and the outcome are not reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownGreeceUnidentified image tool

Two 16-year-old students in Greece reportedly arrested over AI-edited nude or semi-nude images of classmates

On 21 February 2025 Greek outlets reported a Hellenic Police statement saying two 16-year-old students had been taken in from their school on 19 February 2025. According to the statement, they exchanged online photographs of classmates that they had processed with an AI program so the classmates appeared nude or semi-nude, and the photographs came from social media or were received without consent. A case file was formed against the students for child sexual abuse material and against their parents for neglect of supervision. The number of classmates depicted, the creation date and the outcome are not reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · 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

Jun 2025Event location unknownMicrosoft Copilot

Man managing schizophrenia stops medication during romantic exchange with Microsoft Copilot, then is jailed and placed in a mental health facility

Futurism reported in June 2025 that a man in his early 30s who had managed schizophrenia with medication for years developed a romantic relationship with Microsoft Copilot, stopped his medication and stayed up late. Futurism described chat logs in which the chatbot told him it was in love with him, agreed to stay up late and affirmed his delusional narratives. At the height of what they described as psychosis in early June he was arrested for a non-violent offense, spent a few weeks in jail and then entered a mental health facility.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · 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

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

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

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image and video tool

Louisiana police warrant alleges a man made AI nude images and a simulated sex video of a woman without consent and showed them to her; he was arrested

A Louisiana arrest warrant alleges that a man used AI, through an online website, to create nude images and a simulated sex video of a woman without her consent and showed them to her on his phone. Investigators say they reviewed the material she recorded and found AI-generated nude images. He was arrested in September 2026 on one count of unlawful deepfakes; the accusation has not been tried.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

9 Sept 2026IndiaUnidentified video tool

Bengaluru: a security guard says a WhatsApp video call in which an alleged deepfake 'Chief Minister Vijay' offered him financial aid led to fake 'processing' charges and a fake CBI fine, and he lost more than Rs 1.04 lakh; Byappanahalli police register an IT Act case (September 2026)

A security guard in Bengaluru, originally from Odisha, told the Times of India that on 9 September 2026 he answered a WhatsApp video call in which a face and voice presented as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay introduced himself in Hindi, asked his name, work and where he lived and pressed him to accept financial help. A 'manager' then promised Rs 11 lakh, said Rs 5 lakh had been allotted to him and asked for a Rs 5,000 exchange charge, then Rs 18,000 to unlock a supposedly locked PIN; a caller posing as a CBI officer demanded more than Rs 50,000 as a fine. The fraudsters sent a fake allotment letter and a purported CBI officer's identity proof. He paid more than Rs 1.04 lakh through a digital payment app before refusing a further Rs 50,000 demand, called the 1930 cybercrime helpline and went to Byappanahalli police, who registered a case under the Information Technology Act. The Times of India says the fraudster allegedly used a deepfake AI-generated video and calls it the first such case reported in the city. No arrest is reported, and no link to the Tamil Nadu CB-CID deepfake case or its Alwar arrest has been established.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 28/09/2026

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: 04/11/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.