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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 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

In this selection

Published cases
9
Countries with reported events
5
Located 9 of 9 cases · 0 unknown
Languages in checked sources
5
Recorded for 9 of 9 cases

2 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 1 not yet reviewed and 1 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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9 of 404 published cases

19 Aug 2026FranceUnidentified AI tool

Rennes administrative court fines a claimant 500 euros for an abusive tax appeal it found manifestly written with an AI tool and too imprecise to assess

According to Gossement Avocats, which quotes the order, and the court's vice-president on France Inter, an order of 19 August 2026 (n°2508168) of the tribunal administratif de Rennes rejected a claimant’s application contesting a VAT reassessment and fined the claimant 500 euros for an abusive application. As quoted by Gossement Avocats, the order says the application had manifestly been written with an artificial intelligence tool and that its grounds lacked the most elementary details needed to assess them. The court also found it inadmissible because no prior complaint to the tax service was shown, and noted that it repeated a request with substantially the same object rejected in October 2025. The court’s vice-president cited the case on France Inter; commentators stress that AI use alone was not the basis for the fine.

Core concern Low reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources · Added 29/09/2026

3 Sept 2026BrazilUnidentified image tool

Jaú, São Paulo: eight 15-year-old ninth-grade boys at a private school are reported to have made fake nude images of a female classmate with artificial intelligence and shared them in a WhatsApp group; the school suspended them and the Civil Police are investigating a 15-year-old for dissemination of child pornography and defamation

In early September 2026 a private school in Jaú, in the interior of São Paulo state, identified the circulation of fake intimate images of a female classmate made with artificial intelligence and contacted the families. According to the police report described by the press, eight ninth-grade boys, all aged 15, kept a WhatsApp group in which they used digital programs to manipulate images of the student so that she appeared unclothed. The school suspended the eight and informed the girl's parents. The father of one of the boys checked his son's phone, found the files and took the boy and the phone to the police to register a report; the girl's parents also registered a police report. The São Paulo Public Security Secretariat said the Civil Police are investigating a 15-year-old for dissemination of child pornography and defamation that occurred on the morning of Thursday 3 September. The school said the content originated on a private platform outside the school environment and that it had adopted protective and welcoming measures for the student and opened an internal inquiry. The AI tool used is not named. The students are minors and are not named in any report.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 29/09/2026

Sept 2026GermanyUnidentified image tool

Oldenburg, Germany: numerous messages sent through one or more student accounts on Oldenburg schools' email servers contained AI-manipulated deepfake images of children and young people, some of which police say may meet the offence of distributing child or youth sexual abuse material, alongside threats of violence and calls to self-harm; students and parents reported it and police are investigating (September 2026)

The Oldenburg-Stadt police inspectorate said on 22 September 2026 that in the preceding days numerous messages had been sent through one or more student accounts on the email servers of Oldenburg schools. The messages contained, among other things, deepfakes (manipulated depictions of children and young people); on an initial assessment some of these could constitute the offence of distributing child or youth sexual abuse material, and some messages contained threats of violence and calls for recipients to harm themselves. According to dpa, students and parents reported the incidents to the police, and dpa, reporting a police spokesman, describes the images as made with artificial intelligence (the written police statement calls them deepfakes, manipulated depictions, without naming AI). Investigators are examining whether unknown persons gained unauthorised access to the accounts; first digital traces were secured and the police are working with the affected schools. RND reports that the accounts were on the IServ school platform, whose provider said it had no access to the messages and believed the incident was limited to Oldenburg. The exact number of schools (the police refer to 'the affected schools', plural), messages, depicted children and recipients, and who created the images, are not reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 27/09/2026

10 Jul 2026 to 22 Jul 2026IndiaUnidentified video tool

Bengaluru (Karnataka): a 39-year-old man reports losing Rs 7.66 lakh to a forex 'investment' scheme after deepfake Facebook videos of Narendra Modi, Nirmala Sitharaman, Sudha Murty and Anant Ambani appeared to promote it (July 2026; FIR 19 September 2026)

According to an FIR reported by Deccan Herald, a 39-year-old resident of Mahalakshmi Layout, Bengaluru, saw videos on Facebook on 10 July 2026 that appeared to show Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Sudha Murty and Anant Ambani promoting online investments. Believing them genuine, he clicked a link, paid Rs 22,000, and was then called from UK (+44) numbers by people claiming to represent a company called 'One Two Markets', who opened a forex account in his name. Between 10 and 22 July he transferred about Rs 7.6 lakh in several payments; when he tried to withdraw, the callers demanded more money. He went to the police and an FIR was registered on 19 September; a probe is under way. Deccan Herald calls the videos deepfakes; no technical examination of them is reported.

AI relation unknown Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 27/09/2026

Jul 2026IndiaUnidentified image tool

Delhi: a 25-year-old content creator says her photograph was morphed with AI face-swapping tools onto a vulgar image beside the Prime Minister, printed on banners paraded at a Cockroach Janta Party protest at Jantar Mantar and circulated online; FIR registered 24 September 2026, Delhi High Court orders Meta takedown within 24 hours and police protection on 25 September

A 25-year-old content creator from Delhi complained to the police that organisers and demonstrators at a Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest at Jantar Mantar had taken her personal photograph without consent, used AI face-swapping tools to morph her face onto a vulgar, compromising image alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi, printed the image on banners waved before crowds with sexually suggestive slogans, and circulated videos of the banners on Instagram and other platforms; her later High Court petition adds that the images were uploaded to pornographic websites and that she has received rape, acid-attack and death threats. The Delhi Police registered an FIR against unknown persons at the New Delhi cyber police station on 24 September 2026 under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act. On 25 September Justice Girish Kathpalia of the Delhi High Court directed Meta Platforms to remove the objectionable content within 24 hours, ordered the Delhi Police to give the petitioner complete protection and file a status report within a week, issued notice to the four CJP functionaries named in her plea, ordered the registry to redact the impugned web links from the petition (and, per PTI, her name), and listed the matter for 14 October 2026 (PTI, Ommcom News). The police told the court the FIR had been registered the previous day and that action would be taken expeditiously; no accused had been named or arrested at that stage. The petition says the protest took place in July 2026 and that she approached the police on 23 September; the CJP had not commented at the time of the first report.

Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 9 sources, 7 underlying accounts · Added 26/09/2026

16 Sept 2026IndiaUnidentified video tool

Rajasthan: a social-media influencer's video of a Ganga dip at Haridwar was manipulated with AI into an objectionable reel that went viral; she says she is mentally disturbed and cannot leave her house, and filed a cyber-crime complaint on 16 September 2026

A Rajasthan social-media influencer visited Haridwar with her family in June 2026 and on 6 June uploaded to Instagram a short video, recorded by relatives, of herself taking a dip in the Ganga at Har Ki Pauri wearing a salwar suit. About two months later she found that the video had been manipulated with AI into an objectionable version showing the same movements with her face and body portrayed 'in a shameful manner'; the fake reel went viral in the week before 20 September and drew objectionable comments and re-sharing. In a public appeal she asked whoever uploaded it to remove it, saying it was a matter of her dignity, that she was mentally very disturbed and had reached a point where she could not step out of her house. She filed a complaint with the cyber-crime police on 16 September 2026; the investigating Rajasthan Police Service officer said they were trying to identify who created and circulated the video and to have it removed, and that identifying the accused would take time. Dainik Bhaskar's English edition reported the case on 20 September in a 'Sunday Big Story' that does not name her.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 21/09/2026

15 Jul 2026ChinaDoubao, Qwen and Yuanbao

China AI Companion Removal Mass Grief Event (Doubao/Qwen/Yuanbao)

When China's five-department rules on anthropomorphic AI took effect on July 15, 2026, ByteDance's Doubao, Alibaba's Qwen, and Tencent's Yuanbao switched off custom AI agent and companion features, and major outlets documented an outpouring of grief from users who had formed long-term romantic and familial attachments to the agents. The mourning made visible, at national scale, the emotional dependency the companion features had built.

AI relation under review Medium reported severity Regulatory Action

Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution supported · Added 06/08/2026

14 May 2026IndiaUnidentified image tool

Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh: a 17-year-old Class 11 student died by hanging at home on 14 May 2026; her family told police that two young men had stalked her and blackmailed her with obscene images made from her social-media photographs with AI tools

On the night of Thursday 14 May 2026 a 17-year-old Class 11 student was found hanging in her room at the family home in Bhopal's Aishbagh area after sending her younger sister out on a pretext; relatives brought her down but she had died. Her family told the Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar that two young men (both from the Chhola area according to the Times of India; one from Chhola and one from her neighbourhood according to Dainik Bhaskar) had harassed her for weeks, stalked her to and from school, pressured her to meet them, and threatened to circulate obscene images of her that they had made with AI tools from photographs taken from her social-media accounts; the family said she had never met them in person; they also told Dainik Bhaskar that she had told her parents, that the men had misbehaved with her father when the family tried to reason with them, and that fear of social defamation had kept them from going to the police earlier. The Aishbagh police station in-charge said an unnatural-death case had been registered, no suicide note was found, the family's statements were being recorded and further action would follow; investigators were expected to examine her phone and social-media accounts. After the post-mortem on 15 May relatives took the body to the police station and demanded action against the accused. 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 · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 15/06/2026

Feb 2026 to Apr 2026BrazilUnidentified video tool

São Paulo: a 37-year-old influencer used AI 'deepfake' tools to insert photographs of young women and adolescent girls of the Congregação Cristã do Brasil, taken from their social-media profiles without consent, into sexualised videos set inside churches; a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old filed police reports and the Civil Police investigate under the child-protection statute

A humorist and tyre repairer from Lençóis Paulista, São Paulo state, who posts on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok as an impersonator of a television presenter, used AI tools to turn photographs that young women and adolescent girls of the Congregação Cristã do Brasil (CCB) had posted from inside churches into videos in which they appear dancing sensually beside women in short skirts, with the presenter inserted and the influencer commenting on their clothes. A 16-year-old congregant and her parents went to the 8ª Delegacia de Defesa da Mulher in São Paulo in February 2026; g1 made the case public on 22 April 2026 and Folha de S.Paulo confirmed the investigation. The girl told g1 the photograph had been taken in 2025 in front of the altar of a CCB church, that she was very shy, had not wanted to be exposed and was afraid the exposure would affect her social life, and that she had stopped taking photographs of herself; her family sued for moral damages. On 30 April 2026 the mother of a second girl, aged 17, registered a police report at the 4ª DDM Norte; g1 reported that the exposure had affected the girl psychologically. The São Paulo Civil Police investigate under article 241-C of the Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente (simulating a sex or pornography scene with a minor by digital means) and for defamation of adult women in the videos; the inquiry was sent at the prosecutor's request to Lençóis Paulista, where the suspect lives, and the total number of people depicted was still being established. The influencer admitted making the videos with AI, said through his lawyer that they were satire and criticism of customs in a context of humour, said he did not know some of those depicted were minors, denied in his police statement linking the adolescent's image to sexualised content and said he had taken her for an adult, and posted an apology video (dated 5 April by g1's first report, which says it does not mention the deepfakes; described as posted after his police statement in g1's second report). The CCB said it had identified him, was taking internal measures and supports legal measures by the authorities. No later development was found on 2026-09-22.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

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

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.