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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
90
Countries with reported events
21
Located 83 of 90 cases · 7 unknown
Languages in checked sources
16
Recorded for 90 of 90 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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90 of 1099 published cases · page 5 of 5

22 Apr 2026 to 10 Jun 2026United StatesGrok

Arkansas cases allege Grok sexual-image abuse of children photographed by a professional

Arkansas criminal and civil cases allege that a photographer used children’s portrait photographs to generate sexual images with Grok. The accused pleaded not guilty and the criminal case continues. Two families’ federal suits were voluntarily dismissed. A federal complaint filed on 13 October 2026 in the Western District of Arkansas alleges that local police told a child’s parents that Grok was generating sexual images and videos of her from real photographs. On 21 October 2026 a mother sued the photographer and two xAI companies in an Arkansas county circuit court; KNWA reports that the complaint says federal agents told her some of the photographs he had taken of her young daughter had been modified into AI-generated sexual abuse material.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 13 sources, 10 underlying accounts · Added 03/08/2026

Apr 2026 to Jun 2026United StatesUnidentified image tool

Illinois teacher charged after prosecutors say his phone held students' photos altered with an AI app into sexual images

Illinois police and prosecutors charged a middle-school teacher in July 2026 with eight felony child-pornography counts. They say a forensic examination of his phone found photographs of students, taken at school, that had been altered with an AI app into nude or explicit images, and prosecutors told a detention hearing the app was on the phone. A judge ordered him detained and the school board dismissed him; the charges are unproven.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 8 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 06/07/2026

Mar 2026ItalyUnidentified image tool

Province of Catania, Sicily: a 58-year-old school assistant at a middle school was arrested for possessing a large quantity of child sexual abuse material; on his devices police found photographs of underage female students taken inside the school, some without their knowledge, altered with AI 'deep-nude' programs to show them naked beside his own image

Reports published on 14 March 2026, carrying a Postal Police account of an investigation coordinated by the Catania prosecutor's office, describe the arrest, in flagrante delicto, of a 58-year-old collaboratore scolastico (school assistant) at a secondary school (scuola media) in the province of Catania, on suspicion of possessing a large quantity of child sexual abuse material. The preliminary investigations judge validated the arrest and placed him under house arrest. The investigation began with a report by the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to the Postal Police's national centre in Rome, forwarded to Catania, whose cyber specialists identified the man; a search ordered by the prosecutor found images and videos including child victims and bestiality. Investigators also found on his devices digital photographs of underage female students taken inside the school where he worked, some without the girls' knowledge, which had been altered with artificial-intelligence programs found on the seized devices to make the minors appear naked ('deep-nude') and to place them beside the suspect's own image, as if photographed together. Analysis of the devices continued to establish whether the manipulated images were distributed online and whether there are further victims. The number of students depicted is not reported. No later development was found on 2026-09-22.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 7 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 14/06/2026

Event date unknownBrazilUnidentified video tool

Brazilian police investigate creator over sexualised videos made from congregants' photos he says he animated with AI; two teenage girls filed reports

São Paulo police are investigating a social-media creator over sexualised videos he made from photographs of young women and girls in a church congregation, which he said he animated with AI. Two teenage girls filed police reports, and one described embarrassment and fear about the exposure. The creator, through his lawyer, says the posts were humour and denies criminal intent; no charge has been reported.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 5 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 14/06/2026

10 Mar 2025JapanUnidentified image tool

Nagoya, Japan: a former elementary-school teacher was sentenced on 4 June 2026 to three and a half years, including for possessing generative-AI nude images made from school photos of two girls; reported as Japan's first conviction applying the child-pornography law to AI deepfakes

On 4 June 2026 the Nagoya District Court sentenced a 35-year-old former Nagoya municipal elementary-school teacher to three years and six months in prison. Prosecutors had sought six years. He was one of seven current and former teachers from five prefectures charged over a group chat in which members shared secretly filmed images of girls. His offences included secret filming and sharing, and, under the child-pornography law, possessing two generative-AI images showing two real girls apparently naked. According to the police and the judgment summary, he sent photos of the girls from the school where he taught to another member of the group, who made the images on an AI image-editing website. The teacher kept them on his phone, and one was shared in the chat. The judge found the images realistic enough to be mistaken for photographs of the girls. Jiji called it the first case in Japan applying the law to possession of AI-generated sexual deepfakes, and Kyodo called it apparently the first such court finding. A lawyer and a former judge argue the law was stretched.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 9 sources, 8 underlying accounts · Added 14/06/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool

Texas police allege man used AI tools to make sexual images from school-page photos of about 30 children; charge pending

In a release of 29 May 2026, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) said a man had been arrested and charged under the state's Senate Bill 20 with possession of computer-generated child sexual abuse material. DPS said FBI agents who examined his devices in April 2026 found more than 900 AI-generated sexual images and videos of children, as well as non-AI abuse images, and that investigators determined he had taken photos from public pages affiliated with South Texas schools and used AI tools to “nudify” the children. DPS said about 30 child victims had been identified and that the FBI was coordinating victim services. The tools are not named. These are law-enforcement allegations that had not been tested in court, and no later court report was found by 25 October 2026.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 03/06/2026

6 Dec 2025United StatesGrok and Stability AI tools (reported)

Tennessee minors v. xAI: three girls say a man used an AI app to make nude images and video of them and other minors; they sued xAI and later Stability AI

Three Tennessee girls, two still minors, sued xAI in the Northern District of California on 16 March 2026 over AI-generated nude images and a video made of them as minors. According to the complaint, on or about 6 December 2025 an anonymous Instagram user sent one of them sexual AI images of herself made from her own photos, including her homecoming and yearbook pictures, and a link to a Discord server created by a person she knew, which held images and videos of at least 18 other minor girls, including the two other plaintiffs, many from her school. Local police arrested the man in late December 2025; the other two plaintiffs learned from investigators in February 2026 that he had made nude images of them, and he is alleged to have traded the files on Telegram and Mega. The plaintiffs describe anxiety, sleeplessness, nightmares, self-isolation and needing academic accommodations. Their first complaint said law enforcement linked the app he used to xAI's Grok technology; the July amended complaint says the app relied on Stability AI's tools and names Stability AI as a defendant. On 15 October 2026 the court denied an evidence-preservation motion and a motion to stay, and on 22 October it appointed interim co-lead counsel for four related class cases. No court has ruled on the allegations.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Lawsuit Ongoing

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 12 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 18/03/2026

Dec 2024SpainUnidentified image and video tool

Ribera Alta, Valencia: a 17-year-old was investigated for making AI-generated nude images and videos of 16 schoolmates, impersonating a girl on fake accounts and advertising the images for sale

In December 2024 a female student in the Ribera Alta area of Valencia province reported to the Guardia Civil that a social-media account had been created in her name featuring an AI-generated video, and later a second account in her name, other accounts showing AI-generated nude videos, and a webpage advertising the images for commercial purposes; the Guardia Civil said the photos, all of minors, had been manipulated so that the people in them appeared completely naked. After 15 other minors came forward with similar complaints, officers traced IP addresses and account emails to the home of a 17-year-old schoolmate, who is being investigated on suspicion of corrupting minors under a Valencia youth court. The Guardia Civil announced the investigation on 27 July 2025.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 09/03/2026

27 Feb 2025 to 28 Feb 2025United StatesUnidentified image tool

Kentucky: Elijah Heacock, 16, died by suicide after a sextortion demand backed by AI-generated nude images of him

Elijah Heacock, a 16-year-old Caverna High School student in Barren County, Kentucky, died by suicide on 28 February 2025. Investigators searching his phone found AI-generated images of him, some sexually explicit, that an anonymous extortionist had sent with a demand for $3,000 and a threat to share them with his family and friends; his parents say he sent a small partial payment and was told it was 'not enough'. The Barren County Sheriff's Office escalated the case to the FBI, which was still investigating in the inspected reports; no arrest has been reported. His parents have campaigned publicly, Kentucky made sextortion a felony in March 2025, and the family supported the federal Take It Down Act.

Core concern Critical reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources · Added 09/03/2026

Sept 2023SpainUnidentified image tool

Almendralejo, Spain: AI-generated nude images of at least 20 schoolgirls; 15 minors placed under supervised release

In September 2023 families in Almendralejo (Badajoz, Spain) reported that artificial-intelligence 'undressing' applications had been used to create fake nude images of local girls aged 11 to 17 from their social-media photographs, and that the images circulated in WhatsApp groups. Police counted 22 victims and identified 10 suspects, all minors, within days. On 20 June 2024 the Badajoz juvenile court, in an agreed judgment, held 15 minors responsible for 20 counts of child pornography and 20 counts against moral integrity and imposed one year of supervised release with an education programme. In November 2025 elDiario.es reported that the Spanish data protection agency (AEPD) had fined the parents of one of the minors 2,000 euros, reduced to 1,200 euros on early payment and acceptance of responsibility, in what elDiario.es described as the first resolution of its kind in Spain.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 9 sources, 7 underlying accounts · Added 29/01/2026

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