Skip to main content

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
6
Countries with reported events
1
Located 2 of 6 cases · 4 unknown
Languages in checked sources
5
Recorded for 6 of 6 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.

Reported severity Low
More filters: AI relation, use, setting, sources and responses
Clear filters

6 of 540 published cases

Sept 2026Event location unknownUnidentified video tool

Professor Nissaf Ben Alaya publicly denies a video circulating on social media that uses the professor's image and an attributed voice to promote a supposed prostate cancer treatment, and attributes it to AI; statement published by Kapitalis on 28 September 2026

Kapitalis reported on 28 September 2026 that Professor Nissaf Ben Alaya had issued a categorical denial of a fraudulent video circulating on social media, which the outlet describes as a deepfake generated with AI. In the statement, which Kapitalis reproduces, the professor says the video uses the professor's image and a voice attributed to the professor to promote a medicine presented as a treatment for prostate cancer. The statement says the video appears to reuse old footage, including from the COVID-19 period, with a voice or words artificially added, a method the professor attributes to AI. The professor says no permission was given, that the professor has never advertised a health product, and asks platforms and the competent bodies to identify and remove the content. The statement warns that such videos can harm the reputation of the people shown and put the public's health at risk. The report does not say who made the video or whether it has been removed.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 05/10/2026

2026Event location unknownUnidentified image and video tool

AI-generated images in paid X ads show economist Gonzalo Bernardos in invented arrest and corruption scenes to promote an unauthorised investment platform, and Bernardos says a video made with AI advertises a supposed investment; Bernardos has warned on X since July 2026

Maldita.es reported on 1 October 2026 that it found at least 20 paid ads on X, circulated on 24 and 25 September 2026, that used AI-generated images to show the economist Gonzalo Bernardos in invented scenes, among them police searching the economist's home. The ads were seen more than 400,000 times and, depending on the device, led to pages imitating El Mundo that said Bernardos had been arrested and promoted Norden Core, a platform not authorised by the CNMV. Marca reported that Bernardos warned on X on 23 July 2026 that individuals were using the economist's image in fake ads made with AI or other tools. El Caso reported on 4 October 2026 that Bernardos said on X that many people were asking about a video advertising a supposed investment, that the video was made with AI and that Bernardos had never made such promotions. No source reports a person who lost money or a complaint to the police.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 05/10/2026

Feb 2026Event location unknownUnidentified video tool

Padre Diego Jaramillo of El Minuto de Dios says in February 2026 that videos, described by his organisation as made with AI and with a voice that is not his, falsely show him selling collagen and health products

On 23 February 2026 the Minuto de Dios organisation issued a public alert that ads circulating on social networks used the name, image and AI-manipulated videos of its president, the priest Diego Jaramillo Cuartas, with a voice that is not his, to make it appear that he recommended or sold health formulas. In a video published on the organisation's channels, Jaramillo said his image was being used as if he were a collagen seller and that this was totally false. The organisation called the ads deceptive advertising and said it was seeking their removal and reporting the facts to the authorities. No report says whether anyone bought the products.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/10/2026

Sept 2026Event location unknownUnidentified video tool (suspected)

TV presenter Bettina Tietjen warns on Facebook in September 2026 that fake videos, described by outlets as AI deepfakes, show her advertising a remedy for Alzheimer's, and says scammers are behind them

Bettina Tietjen, host of the 'NDR Talk Show', wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday 29 September 2026 that videos were apparently circulating in which she advertised a remedy for Alzheimer's. 'Das sind Fake-Videos, dahinter stecken Betrüger', she wrote, asking people not to fall for them. The spot on news agency (via Abendzeitung München) reports that she has nothing to do with the advertised product. MOPO describes the clips as fake AI videos, and spot on news and TAG24 say they are apparently deepfakes made or altered with artificial intelligence. No report says whether anyone bought the product, and no complaint or takedown is reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

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

Sept 2026United StatesUnidentified image tool

Stanford University: the Residential & Dining Enterprises department used generative AI to alter a promotional photograph of three students, replacing a Hispanic male student with an AI-generated Black woman, slimming two students' faces and changing their clothing, on campus banners; the university said the undisclosed alteration violated its AI policy, apologised and opened an investigation (Stanford Review, Stanford Daily, NBC Bay Area, NBC News, 21-24 September 2026)

The Stanford Review reported on 21 September 2026 that Stanford's Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) had used AI to change the appearance of students in its advertising: a student was sent images comparing a banner with the original photograph, which he recalled a Stanford photographer taking, and found he had been removed and replaced by an AI-generated Black woman, while the two students beside him were made to appear visibly thinner. Stanford confirmed to The Stanford Daily on 23 September that R&DE used generative AI to modify the appearance of several students in the image; the Daily reported that the students' clothing was changed into Stanford merchandise, two students' faces were slimmed and one student's race, gender and appearance were entirely changed, and the university said the alteration and its non-disclosure violated its policy prohibiting AI in producing or altering images of Stanford people; the banner at the Governor's Corner housing centre was taken down and staff training promised. On 24 September NBC News reported the university's statement that the alteration was 'a serious error in judgment', that it had apologised to the students whose images were altered or erased, and that it had opened an investigation. The replaced student, who first found the edit funny, said that seeing his identity changed and being left out made him feel 'silenced and erased from a representation that was supposed to include me', that it was upsetting, and that he was exhausted by the national media attention. According to the student, the original photograph was taken at a 2024 Lunar New Year dinner in a campus dining hall and had been used unaltered in earlier promotional material.

Core concern Low reported severity Internal Action

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 25/09/2026

5 Sept 2026 to 20 Sept 2026United StatesUnidentified video tool

Texas: State Rep. Vikki Goodwin, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, filed a sworn complaint with the Travis County Sheriff's Office on 19 September 2026 alleging that two campaign ads posted on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's X account used AI-generated video of her saying things she never said; the posts were deleted the next day, her campaign says, and Patrick's campaign calls them obvious parody

On Saturday 19 September 2026 Vikki Goodwin, an Austin state representative running against Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, filed a complaint with a notarised affidavit at the Travis County Sheriff's Office accusing Patrick of violating Texas's 2019 election deepfake law, after his campaign posted two ads (5 and 12 September, on his non-government X account) containing AI-generated videos of her. In the affidavit she stated: 'I did not personally do or say the things depicted in the video; although the "person" in the video appears to be me, it was not actually me', and that the video was posted 'with the intent to deceive Texans, injure a candidate, or influence the result of an election'. She told KUT the ads made it look as though she favoured raising taxes, which she says she opposes in every campaign speech. The sheriff's office confirmed receipt of the complaint without further comment. Patrick's campaign spokesman told the New York Times the material was 'an obvious parody produced to entertain' and that none of it was published within 30 days of the election; the posts were taken down the day after the complaint, according to Goodwin's communications director. Goodwin said she doubted the sheriff's office would follow up now that the posts were removed. A conviction under the law is a class A misdemeanour.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution disputed · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 22/09/2026

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.

Methodology and corrections · Subscribe via RSS · Suggest a case or correction · Find support

Last dataset update: 07/10/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.