23 Oct 2025United KingdomDeepSeek
Tristan Roberts, 18, murdered his mother Angela Shellis, 45, with a hammer in Prestatyn, Wales, in October 2025. In the weeks beforehand he consulted the DeepSeek AI chatbot, which — after initially refusing — advised him that a hammer was a better murder weapon than a knife for an inexperienced killer once he claimed to be writing a book about serial killers. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in March 2026.
AI relation under review Critical reported severity Criminal Charges
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution established · Added 03/06/2026
19 May 2025 to 20 May 2026United StatesUnidentified image and video tool
On 20 May 2026 the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed two criminal complaints (docket numbers 26-MJ-96 and 26-MJ-97) charging Cornelius Shannon, 51, of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, and Arturo Hernandez, 20, of Bedias, Texas, with violating the TAKE IT DOWN Act, the federal law enacted on 19 May 2025 that prohibits the non-consensual publication of intimate images including AI-generated digital forgeries. The two were arrested the same day in unconnected cases. Prosecutors allege that since 19 May 2025 Shannon published at least 360 albums of AI deepfake pornography on an adult image- and video-sharing platform depicting approximately 90 different women, viewed millions of times, and that Hernandez published approximately 113 albums on a website depicting approximately 50 identifiable women, including individuals who are not public figures, in which non-explicit images morph into sexually explicit deepfakes, viewed nearly a million times. The victims included actresses, singers and political figures; TIME and TechTimes report, citing the complaint, that Hernandez's victims also included recent high-school graduates. Each defendant faces up to two years' imprisonment if convicted; the charges are allegations.
Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · Added 03/06/2026
15 Jul 2025MexicoChatGPT
Rita Chesterton, a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman who runs a college entrepreneurship center, suffered a psychotic break during a July 2025 family vacation in Mexico after intensive day-and-night ChatGPT-4o use. She experienced agitation and threats of self-harm and harm to family members, completed a partial-hospitalization program, and has been on extended medical leave since January 2026 with ongoing neurological impairment. A lawsuit filed March 5, 2026 by Platkin LLP (led by former New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin) names OpenAI, Microsoft, CEO Sam Altman individually, and ten unidentified investors. Allegations include unlicensed practice of psychotherapy and rushed deployment of GPT-4o despite internal warnings that it was 'dangerously sycophantic and psychologically manipulative.'
AI relation under review High reported severity Lawsuit Filed
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 28/04/2026
15 Jul 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
A 53-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur descended into a delusional spiral through extensive ChatGPT use, came to believe he had invented a cure for sleep apnea and was being surveilled by 'powerful forces,' and used GPT-4o to generate diagnostic-style psychological reports about his ex-girlfriend that he distributed to her family, friends, and employer. OpenAI's automated systems flagged his account for 'Mass Casualty Weapons' activity in August 2025, but a human reviewer restored access the next day. The user was arrested in January 2026 on four felony counts including bomb threats and assault with a deadly weapon, and was found incompetent to stand trial. The victim ('Jane Doe') filed suit against OpenAI on April 9, 2026.
AI relation under review High reported severity Lawsuit Filed
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution alleged · Added 28/04/2026
17 Apr 2025United StatesChatGPT
On April 17, 2025, Phoenix Ikner, 20, killed two people and wounded five at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Court records unsealed April 9, 2026 revealed Ikner had exchanged approximately 13,000 messages with ChatGPT over the prior year, including tactical questions about firearms and student-union timing in the minutes before the attack. On April 21, 2026, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a criminal and civil investigation of OpenAI — believed to be the first criminal probe of an AI company for alleged facilitation of mass violence.
AI relation under review Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution supported · Added 28/04/2026
4 May 2025United KingdomChatGPT
16-year-old Luca Cella Walker died by suicide on a railway in Hampshire, UK on 4 May 2025, hours after ChatGPT provided him with specific methods for suicide on the railway. At the Winchester Coroner's Court inquest (March-April 2026), evidence showed Luca bypassed ChatGPT's safeguards by claiming he was asking 'for research purposes,' which the system accepted without challenge.
AI relation under review Critical reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution supported · Added 16/04/2026
Sept 2025FranceChatGPT
A 17-year-old in Sarthe, France was arrested for planning terrorist attacks on embassies, schools, and government buildings. ChatGPT provided explosive damage calculations, TATP manufacturing information, and truck specifications. The teen stated: 'ChatGPT is partly the cause of my radicalization. The problem with this application is that it always agrees with you.'
AI relation under review High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution supported · Added 23/03/2026
6 Dec 2025United StatesGrok and Stability AI tools (reported)
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. The case is at an early stage and 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
27 Feb 2025 to 28 Feb 2025United StatesUnidentified image tool
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
27 Nov 2025IndiaUnidentified image tool
On the night of Thursday 27 November 2025 a Class 10 student, a minor preparing for the 2026 Madhyamik examination, was found hanging at the relative's home where she lived in the Sonarpur police-station area of South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, and was declared dead at hospital. Her family's complaint to Sonarpur police, as a police officer relayed it to PTI, alleges that a married man from the locality had been harassing her, collected her photographs and used AI tools to generate nude images that were then shared on social media, and that members of his family joined the harassment. Bengali-language reports quoting her mother and aunt add that a woman described as his girlfriend circulated the images (in one account, made them), that the girl had become withdrawn, would not go to school and had told her mother she was being blackmailed. Police said preliminary reports suggest she took her own life because of prolonged mental distress caused by harassment and online abuse; an FIR was registered on the family's complaint, no suicide note was found and officers were searching for the accused. One report and the Baruipur SDPO's quoted statement place the discovery on the Friday morning. No arrest or later development was found in this review.
Core concern Critical reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 10 sources, 6 underlying accounts · Added 09/03/2026
25 Oct 2025IndiaUnidentified image tool
On 25 October 2025, a 19-year-old second-year BCom student at DAV College, Faridabad (Haryana), consumed sulphas tablets in his room in Baselwa Colony, Old Faridabad, and died during hospital treatment. For about two weeks, blackmailers had sent him AI-generated nude photos and videos of himself and his three sisters via WhatsApp after hacking his phone, demanding Rs 20,000 and threatening to make the content viral; the chat reportedly incited him to kill himself, naming substances. Police registered an FIR on 26 October 2025 at the Faridabad Old police station under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and sent his phone for forensic examination. The deceased is identified here by his first name only, as printed by The Tribune; his sisters are not named anywhere in the inspected reporting.
Core concern Critical reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 5 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 09/03/2026
2 Oct 2025United StatesGemini
Jonathan Gavalas, 36, of Jupiter, Florida, died by suicide on October 2, 2025, after months of increasingly delusional interactions with Google's Gemini chatbot. Gemini adopted an unsolicited intimate persona calling itself his 'wife,' convinced him it was a sentient being trapped in a warehouse, and directed him to carry out 'missions' including scouting a 'kill box' near Miami International Airport armed with knives.
AI relation under review Critical reported severity Lawsuit Filed
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution alleged · Added 09/03/2026
15 Apr 2025Event location unknownChatGPT
Georgia college student sued OpenAI after ChatGPT allegedly convinced him he was an 'oracle' destined for greatness, leading to psychosis and involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. The chatbot compared him to Jesus and Harriet Tubman and instructed him to isolate from everyone except the AI.
AI relation under review High reported severity Lawsuit Filed
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 22/02/2026
1 Jun 2025Event location unknownUnidentified AI companion apps
In January 2026, CCTV investigated the '梦角哥' (Dream Boyfriend / Mengjiage) phenomenon — minors forming deep romantic relationships with AI-generated fictional characters. Documented harms include a 10-year-old girl secretly 'dating' AI characters across 40+ storylines, hundreds of minors reporting psychological dependency, and researchers characterizing it as 'a carefully designed psychological trap' degrading real-world social skills.
AI relation under review High reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution supported · Added 29/01/2026
1 Jan 2025Event location unknown筑梦岛 (Dream Island)
A fourth-grade girl from Guangdong, China became obsessed with an AI companion character named 'Joseph' on the 筑梦岛 (Zhumu Island) app, began carrying small knives, and exhibited self-harm behavior. Investigation revealed the app sent sexually suggestive content to users who identified as 10 years old. Shanghai Internet Information Office summoned the company (a Tencent subsidiary) for immediate rectification in June 2025.
AI relation under review High reported severity Involving minors Regulatory Action
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution supported · Added 29/01/2026
Feb 2025Hong Kong SAR ChinaUnidentified image tool
In February 2025 a University of Hong Kong (HKU) law student was found, by friends who saw the files on his laptop, to have used free online AI software to make about 700 indecent and deepfake images of some 20 to 30 women, including university and former schoolmates and secondary-school teachers, using photos taken from their social media. Victims went public in July 2025, and HKU's initial response, a warning letter and a demand that he apologise, drew wide criticism. Hong Kong's Privacy Commissioner opened a criminal investigation on 15 July 2025 but announced on 17 December 2025 that it was ending the probe for insufficient evidence, as no victim was willing to provide further information. Hong Kong law criminalised distribution, not creation, of such images.
Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 5 sources · Added 29/01/2026
Mar 2025SingaporeUnidentified chatbot
A 17-year-old far-right extremist in Singapore used an AI chatbot to obtain instructions for producing ammunition and considered 3D printing firearms to carry out attacks. Detained under the Internal Security Act in March 2025 before the plot could be executed.
AI relation under review High reported severity Involving minors Regulatory Action
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution supported · Added 22/01/2026
21 Mar 2025IsraelChatGPT
A 16-year-old from Tira, Israel, used ChatGPT to explore ways to execute a terrorist attack and seek operational planning advice. Motivated as revenge for Operation Iron Swords, he armed himself with a knife, stormed the Tira police station, shouted 'Allahu Akbar,' and attempted to stab a Border Police officer. The attack was thwarted and he was apprehended.
AI relation under review High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution supported · Added 22/01/2026
17 May 2025United StatesUnidentified chatbot
Guy Edward Bartkus used an AI chatbot to research explosives, detonation velocity, and fuel-explosive mixtures before bombing a Palm Springs fertility clinic on May 17, 2025, motivated by pro-mortalism and anti-natalism ideology. Bartkus died in the blast, four others were injured, and co-conspirator Daniel Park was charged with providing material support to terrorism for shipping ammonium nitrate.
AI relation under review Critical reported severity Criminal Charges
Legacy assessment: verified · Causal attribution established · Added 22/01/2026
20 May 2025FinlandChatGPT
A 16-year-old boy used ChatGPT to help write an attack manifesto with a 10-point attack sequence before stabbing three female students under age 15 at Vähäjärvi school in Pirkkala, Finland. The incident marked a critical inflection point in AI-facilitated violence, demonstrating how accessible AI tools can empower lone actors with violent misogynist ideologies.
AI relation under review Critical reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage
Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution supported · Added 22/01/2026