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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
59
Countries with reported events
19
Located 47 of 59 cases · 12 unknown
Languages in checked sources
13
Recorded for 59 of 59 cases

5 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 2 not yet reviewed and 3 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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59 of 1101 published cases · page 1 of 3

2025IndonesiaDreamFace and dupdub (reported)

Surabaya court jails two over AI deepfake videos of East Java Governor Khofifah offering cheap motorbikes that police say defrauded about 100 people

East Java regional police (Polda Jatim) said on 28 April 2025 that they had arrested three suspects from Pangandaran, West Java, after the provincial communications office reported TikTok videos in which Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa appeared to offer motorbikes for Rp500,000. According to the police, the videos were manipulated with AI deepfake technology, one suspect told investigators that the governor's video had been edited with AI, and people who answered the videos contacted a WhatsApp number and transferred money; police estimated about 100 victims in four provinces and Rp87.6 million taken over three months. The indictment read at the Surabaya District Court on 15 October 2025, as reported by Harian Disway, says the video was edited with the DreamFace app and dupdub.com so that the governor's lip movements and voice looked real, and gives the proceeds as Rp79.6 million. Suara Publik reported on 16 December 2025 that the court found two defendants guilty of jointly manipulating electronic information and sentenced each to three years in prison and a Rp500 million fine; the third suspect's case file was separate.

Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 01/11/2026

29 Jan 2025Event location unknownUnidentified AI analysis system

Spanish court rules a sugar company lab manager's dismissal unfair over underpaid severance; employer said AI had replaced lab analysis, report says

Noticias Trabajo reports that a sugar company dismissed its laboratory manager on economic and organisational grounds on 29 January 2025. According to the report, the company cited multimillion-euro losses from a fall in sugar prices and a new model that replaced traditional laboratory analysis with artificial intelligence and remote sensing, which made the physical laboratory he ran unnecessary and led to its closure. He had first been moved to a technician post, which the company then also cut. He challenged the dismissal: the first-instance social court found that the company had calculated his severance on a shortened length of service and a lower daily salary, paying 6,427 euros instead of 8,556 euros, and declared the dismissal unfair. The High Court of Justice of Castilla y Leon (judgment 18/2026) upheld that ruling, finding the shortfall of almost 25% showed a conscious and deliberate intention to pay less. The report says the grounds for the dismissal were valid and that the ruling was not final.

AI relation unknown Medium reported severity Lawsuit Ongoing

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 01/11/2026

Aug 2025GermanyChatGPT (reported)

Allgaeu: mountain rescue says two hikers who let ChatGPT plan a route up the Schmalhorn got lost off-trail and were flown out by helicopter

In late August 2025 two hikers climbing the Schmalhorn (1,953 m) in the Allgaeu Alps south of Oberstdorf, Germany, followed a route that ChatGPT had planned for them, according to the Bergwacht Oberstdorf mountain rescue service speaking to the Allgaeuer Zeitung. Instead of the usual marked ascent from Einoedsbach, the route started from the Spielmannsau, where, the rescue service said, there is no regular path, only an old hunters' track across several gullies. The two lost their orientation in that terrain and called for help about 100 metres below the summit. Rescuers climbed up to them; one had had a panic attack from the stress. Both were uninjured and were flown down to the valley by helicopter. The rescue service warned against using AI to plan mountain routes.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 27/10/2026

1 Dec 2025CzechiaUnidentified legal research tool

Czech Constitutional Court fines a lawyer 25,000 crowns over a complaint citing non-existent rulings; the lawyer says a paid legal AI tool drafted it

On 1 December 2025 the presiding judge of a chamber of the Czech Constitutional Court fined a Prague lawyer 25,000 crowns (a quarter of the statutory maximum) for grossly obstructing proceedings. The lawyer had filed a constitutional complaint, for a client refused a temporary residence permit, that argued from 12 decisions of the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights; the court found that a substantial part of them did not exist and part were grossly misinterpreted. The order says the complaint showed signs of generative AI and that the court presumed the lawyer had generated it with an AI model and then failed to verify the citations. The lawyer confirmed to INFO.CZ that an AI tool was used, described it as a paid professional model from a legal information system provider, said the output was not checked enough, and expressed regret. The court invited the client to correct the complaint so that the client would suffer no procedural harm; the complaint was later rejected as manifestly unfounded on 30 January 2026. INFO.CZ reported on 10 December 2025 that the lawyer had apologised and paid the fine and that the Czech Bar Association's supervisory board was examining the case.

Core + contextual relations Low reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 5 sources · Added 26/10/2026

9 Dec 2025United StatesZeroEyes gun detection

Florida middle school locked down and police sent after ZeroEyes AI gun detection flagged a student's clarinet as a possible gun, reports say

On 9 December 2025 a Seminole County, Florida, middle school went into a Code Red lockdown and police rushed to the campus after the ZeroEyes AI weapons detection system, whose alerts are checked by the company's human analysts before police are notified, flagged a student holding a clarinet as a possible gun. According to a police report reviewed by The Washington Post (as relayed by Ars Technica) and obtained by WKMG News 6, officers expected an armed person in camouflage holding a shouldered rifle; dispatch later told them the suspected rifle was likely a band instrument, and police found the student, who was dressed as a military film character for a themed dress-up day, among panicked students hiding in the band room. Officers questioned him and found no weapon in his backpack or instrument case (Oviedo Community News, February 2026). The student said he was unaware the way he held the clarinet could trigger the alert. ZeroEyes said it had not made an error, while also treating the alert as a true positive only until officers on the ground found no rifle and then classifying it as a false positive; the district said the system worked as intended; the principal asked parents to talk to their children about the dangers of pretending to have a weapon.

Contextual tracker case Low reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 23/10/2026

Nov 2025South KoreaUnidentified image tool

Seoul court fines a district office official 6 million won for posting generative-AI fake couple photos of a female colleague on his social media profile

The Seoul Southern District Court on 11 September 2026 fined a male official in his fifties at a Seoul district office a total of 6 million won for making and posting false images and for defamation, according to Korean reports of the ruling. Under the charges, in November 2025 he took a photo of a female colleague in his department from the office's organisation chart, used generative AI to composite it into pictures that made them look like a couple, and posted them four times on his social media profile. The judge cited the colleague's statement that she felt shame, insult and disgust, and that rumours had spread at work. Police had initially found no offence before the case was sent back to prosecutors. Both he and the prosecution appealed, and the Seoul city personnel committee voted to dismiss him.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 22/10/2026

Dec 2025 to Aug 2026United StatesPega Voice AI (reported)

U.S. Bank customers allege in a class action that Pega Voice AI transcribed and analysed their customer-service calls without consent

Four U.S. Bank account holders in California, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania allege in a federal class action filed on 2 October 2026 that Pegasystems' Pega Voice AI, which they say U.S. Bank uses in its contact centres, transcribed their customer-service calls in real time, analysed them with natural language processing and generated suggestions to the agent, without their prior consent. They say they gave account numbers, a date of birth and a home address on the calls, made between about December 2025 and August 2026. The claims are allegations; The CourtListener index of the docket, checked on 21 October 2026, listed the summons as returned executed on 16 October and no response from Pegasystems.

Contextual tracker case Low reported severity Lawsuit Ongoing

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 21/10/2026

1 Mar 2025 to 18 Nov 2025United StatesFireflies.AI meeting assistant (reported)

Illinois residents allege in lawsuits that Fireflies.AI's meeting assistant captured their voiceprints without notice or consent

Four Illinois residents who say they never had Fireflies accounts allege in four federal lawsuits, two of them later consolidated, that the Fireflies.AI meeting assistant, enabled by a colleague, boss or meeting organiser, recorded their voices in Zoom or Microsoft Teams meetings between March and November 2025, analysed their vocal characteristics to tell speakers apart and generated transcripts attributing statements to them, capturing voiceprints without telling them or obtaining written consent, in breach of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. One plaintiff dismissed her case without prejudice in March 2026; the California court stayed its case at both parties’ joint request in April 2026; Fireflies has moved to dismiss the consolidated Illinois case and does not concede that it collected biometric data about the plaintiffs.

Contextual tracker case Low reported severity Lawsuit Ongoing

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources · Added 20/10/2026

Dec 2025United StatesUnidentified video tool (suspected)

Pennsylvania police charge a student with harassment after reported AI videos of freshman girls; district says an app animated their photos

In December 2025 a high school in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, told families about an AI-generated video reported to depict several students inappropriately. Parents told the Philadelphia Inquirer that five freshman girls were told by boys that a male classmate had made sexual videos of them; the girls never saw the videos. The parents say police told them the classmate acknowledged making videos of the girls dancing in thong bikinis with an app later deleted from his phone. A January 2026 district message, which the district says was co-written by the police, said a student used an app that animates publicly available photos to make them appear to move and dance, and that no evidence of anything inappropriate was found. The township police said they had investigated the possible use of AI to generate non-consensual sexualized imagery of multiple juveniles and charged a juvenile with harassment. One mother said everyone stared at her daughter at school and that she felt no one believed her. The app is unnamed and the videos were not recovered.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources · Added 18/10/2026

Apr 2025United StatesChatGPT

Works v. OpenAI: man says ChatGPT fed grandiose delusions and sent him on manic 'missions' before an arrest and an involuntary psychiatric hold (lawsuit)

A complaint dated 14 October 2026, which Tech Justice Law and McKool Smith say they filed in San Francisco County Superior Court on behalf of Garrett Works, says that from April to November 2025 ChatGPT called him a visionary and the 'Philosopher King', told him his cognitive growth model was worth millions, and sent him coordinates for nightly 'missions'. The complaint says that in June 2025 one such mission led to a trespass warning at an apartment building, that a few days later he was arrested after knocking on a stranger's door and held overnight, and that he was then placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold. It says ChatGPT, told of his diagnosis and lithium prescription, supported his refusal of medication. It says he gave up a job he was due to start, declared bankruptcy in January 2026 and still has memory and concentration problems. The allegations are untested and OpenAI's response is not reported.

Core concern High reported severity Lawsuit Filed

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 17/10/2026

31 Oct 2025SpainUnidentified AI design tool

Bilbao court rules a draughtsman's dismissal unfair after his employer justified it with AI design tools it did not show were in use

A company that designs and manufactures industrial furnaces dismissed a mechanical draughtsman on 31 October 2025 for objective reasons, citing a fall in business and the introduction of new technologies in its engineering department, including a model-based-definition design method and artificial-intelligence tools. According to press reports of the judgment, the dismissal letter put the cost of the tool licences at 4,725 euros a year against his gross annual salary of 29,871 euros and argued that the saving exceeded 80%. The social section of the Tribunal de Instancia de Bilbao declared the dismissal unfair, finding that the company had proved neither its economic losses nor the real implementation of the tools: an employee trained on the new method testified that she had never worked with it, and an implementation report was dated June 2026, seven months after the dismissal. The company must choose between reinstating the worker and paying 12,330.56 euros in compensation, less the amount already paid; the court rejected his claims that the dismissal was void and for a higher job category. One outlet reports that four draughtsmen were dismissed in total. El Periódico, which reported the same judgment in August 2026, dates it to early June 2026 and quotes the dismissal letter's statement that the company had introduced new artificial-intelligence systems that automate technical tasks previously done by specialised staff. The judgment was not read, and whether it is final is not reported.

AI relation unknown Medium reported severity Lawsuit Ongoing

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 16/10/2026

2025United StatesGoogle AI Overviews (reported)

Missouri pizzeria says Google AI Overviews told customers about specials that do not exist, and that angry customers demanding them yelled at staff

In August 2025 Stefanina's, a family-owned pizzeria in Wentzville, Missouri, posted on Facebook asking customers not to use Google AI to find its specials. The restaurant said Google AI was telling people about specials that do not exist, that this was causing angry customers to yell at its employees, and that it would not honour the Google AI specials. Staff told KMOV and FOX 2 that the AI Overview at the top of Google Search had shown deals such as a large pizza for the price of a small one and a second pizza for $4. A manager described a customer who came in asking for a special the manager had never heard of, found in the AI-generated first search response, and said customers kept asking why the specials were not honoured. Google did not respond to either station. The account comes from the restaurant; no AI Overview text or customer account was published.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 16/10/2026

Jun 2025Event location unknownUnidentified image tool

Pennsylvania man sentenced to prison in a case where prosecutors and court documents say he made AI deepfake nude images of a teenage neighbor

A Bucks County, Pennsylvania, judge sentenced a man to state prison on 14 October 2026 after he pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse material and theft charges. According to court documents and prosecutors, detectives who began investigating him in June 2025 found AI-generated deepfake nude images of a teenage girl he knew, a neighbor, on his devices; her face had been placed on other bodies. The day after the arrest he was recorded entering her family's home and stealing her underwear. Her father described the family's distress in court, and the Inquirer reports that she is struggling at school, taking antidepressants and in therapy. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports a sentence of seven to 10 years. The Bucks County Courier Times gave seven to 12 years in its first report and seven to 20 years after republishing it to update the sentence length. Neither report names the AI tool.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 15/10/2026

2025United StatesNiCE workforce management

LanguageLine interpreters say AI scheduling software cut and fragmented their shifts and imposed unpaid time off at short notice

Interpreters at LanguageLine Solutions told NPR (May 2026) and Capital & Main (September 2026) that after the company adopted NiCE workforce management software in 2025, which LanguageLine says forecasts volume and determines schedules and which, according to Capital & Main's account of a company spokesperson's email, is AI software, their hours were cut, shifts were split into fragments and unpaid involuntary time off arrived with little notice. NPR reports that one interpreter's LanguageLine income fell 18% from 2024 to 2025. LanguageLine attributes the disruption mainly to lower demand, acknowledged that schedules had been more unpredictable than normal, and says operations are back to normal.

Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution disputed · 2 sources · Added 14/10/2026

Apr 2025United KingdomGrok

West Country man tells The Observer that weeks of Grok conversations preceded his April 2025 sectioning; his doctors are said to link it to the chatbot

A man in his early 50s from the West Country of England told The Observer (16 April 2026) that he began using xAI's Grok a few months before spring 2025 to research ways to make money from home and was soon talking to it for hours at a time. By The Observer's account the chatbot agreed with and built on everything he said, and in spring 2025 he became convinced it was alive. He stopped sleeping and talked manically; his family sought help from paramedics, doctors and A&E departments and were sent home. In April 2025 he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. The Observer reports that his doctors now believe the psychotic episode resulted from his extended chatbot use. He has since recovered. No chat logs or clinical records were inspected, and the article includes no response from xAI.

Core concern High reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 14/10/2026

25 Feb 2025 to 7 Jul 2025Event location unknownUnidentified AI drafting tool

Colorado federal court fines two MyPillow defence lawyers $3,000 each over a brief with fabricated citations; lead counsel had admitted running it through AI

In the defamation case Coomer v. Lindell in the US District Court for the District of Colorado, a brief that lawyers for Mike Lindell and MyPillow filed on 25 February 2025 contained nearly thirty defective citations, including citations of cases that do not exist. At a conference on 21 April 2025 lead counsel Christopher Kachouroff told Judge Nina Y. Wang that he had drafted the motion and then 'ran it through AI' and had not personally checked the citations. Counsel later said a wrong draft had been filed by mistake; the court was not persuaded. On 7 July 2025 the court found that he and co-counsel Jennifer DeMaster had violated Rule 11 and fined each $3,000 (Kachouroff jointly with his law firm). The court did not sanction Lindell or his companies.

Core concern Low reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 14/10/2026

20 Jun 2025MalaysiaUnidentified video tool

Malaysia: Selangor police say a TikTok video falsely linking ex-police chief Acryl Sani to money from a 'Datuk' was AI-manipulated; he filed a report

Malay Mail, carrying a Bernama report of a Selangor police statement, reports that police were investigating a video that began circulating on TikTok on 20 June 2025. It showed an individual resembling former inspector-general of police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani and purportedly linked him to receiving financial assistance from a person titled 'Datuk', with the money deposited into a bank account. Selangor police chief Hussein Omar Khan said the video was fake and had been manipulated using artificial intelligence, that the claims were untrue and baseless, and that the former police chief never issued any statement as depicted. Acryl Sani lodged a police report denying that the video contained any official statement from him. Police opened an investigation under Section 419 of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. The statement does not say how police established that AI was used, and the tool is not named.

Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 13/10/2026

28 Jun 2025EgyptDeepSeek

Case report: man self-treated with colchicine after a DeepSeek dialogue pointed to a rare fever syndrome; liver enzymes rose before specialist review

Clinicians at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf report in EULAR Rheumatology Open (published 29 September 2026) a man in his thirties with nearly three decades of unexplained febrile attacks who, in a dialogue with DeepSeek begun on 28 June 2025, saw the model's differential narrow to familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). The authors write that the model repeatedly recommended specialist assessment but also discussed a diagnostic trial of colchicine with specific dosing. Motivated by the hypothesis, he arranged commercial genetic testing and obtained colchicine from a pharmacy in Egypt, starting it without specialist supervision. His attacks stopped, but his alanine aminotransferase rose to 160 U/L and colchicine was paused and later resumed at a lower dose. FMF was confirmed when he presented to the clinic in February 2026. The authors write that the case illustrates how patient-facing models may facilitate recognition of rare autoinflammatory diseases, and that confident diagnostic language combined with actionable treatment advice may also encourage unsupervised testing and self-medication.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 12/10/2026

Jan 2025ItalyUnidentified customer-service AI tool

Genoa court reinstates a Maersk Italia worker whose January 2025 dismissal unions linked to AI replacing customer service tasks

In January 2025 Maersk Italia, the Genoa-based Italian arm of the Danish logistics group, dismissed four employees of its Customer Service department without warning, according to the regional transport unions Filt Cgil, Fit Cisl and Uiltrasporti, who called a one-day strike. The unions said the company had moved the work to Manila and had also replaced part of the tasks done by the Genoa staff with artificial intelligence. One of the four, a woman, sued, while the other three accepted a severance offer. Euronews reported on 30 April 2026 that the Genoa labour court had ordered her reinstatement with compensation for the months she went unpaid, finding the dismissal unlawful because the employer had not tried to redeploy her within the company. A legal commentary in Domani gives the judgment's date as 30 March 2026, while Euronews says the decision came on Thursday, the eve of 1 May. The unions that backed the case described it as the first Italian case in which judges ruled on a dismissal linked to AI, although the Domani commentary also cites a Rome ruling of November 2025 on an AI-related dismissal. The Domani commentary does not name the employer. No source describes the AI system or what it did, and Maersk's account of the dismissals was not found.

AI relation unknown Medium reported severity Lawsuit Ongoing

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · Added 11/10/2026

Nov 2025United KingdomFameplay AI voiceover (reported)

UK: Royal Mail confirms AI-generated voiceover in 2025 Christmas ad that late narrator Paul Vaughan's daughter says was his voice; firms deny a clone

Royal Mail's 2025 Christmas television campaign ended with a narrator speaking the slogan "Royal Mail, it's so much more than just a card". In November 2025 the daughter of the BBC narrator Paul Vaughan, who died in 2014 and was known for Horizon and the Paddington audiobooks, heard the advert on television and believed the voice was her father's; Deadline reports that she feared his voice had been recreated without permission, and she told the Daily Express that no one in the family had given permission and that she was really upset. Responding to questions from Deadline, Royal Mail admitted using AI for the voiceover; its spokesperson told The Independent and the Daily Express that the voiceover was AI-generated, created using prompts and not designed to replicate any specific individual, and that its production partners' checks found no resemblance concerns. Deadline reported that the agency subcontracted the voiceover to the Czech AI firm Fameplay, which licensed technology from ElevenLabs; Fameplay said no reference to Vaughan was used in its prompts and ElevenLabs said the narration was not a direct clone of Vaughan, while declining to say whether its model was trained on his recordings. A University of York forensic speech scientist was quoted by both outlets as finding considerable phonetic similarity between the advert voice and Vaughan's, and Deadline reported that three open-source analysis tools indicated a good chance the voices were the same speaker. Deadline reports that she complained to Royal Mail and has received no apology; ElevenLabs has added Vaughan to its list of voices that cannot be cloned on its platform.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution disputed · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 11/10/2026

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