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NOPE Incident Tracker

Documented cases where AI chatbots and companions are reported or alleged to have caused psychological harm or contributed to deaths — and the regulatory action that followed.

118 incidents reported since 2016

31

Lawsuits

23

Regulatory

43

Affecting Minors

Timeline

2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026

5 of 118 incidents

Filters:
Severity: Critical
AI image-manipulation / deepfake tools (unspecified) May 2026 Affecting Minor(s)

Bhopal Class 11 Student Suicide After AI-Image Blackmail (India)

A Class 11 student (around 16) in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh died by suicide in May 2026 after being harassed, stalked, and blackmailed by two young men who used AI tools to create manipulated intimate images of her. Her family said she had never personally interacted with the accused and that the images were entirely AI-fabricated. Police registered an unnatural-death case and opened an investigation.

Severity: High
AI image/video-editing tools (unspecified) May 2026

Indore College Student AI-Image Blackmail and Attempted Suicide (India)

A first-year college student in Indore, Madhya Pradesh was blackmailed with AI-edited obscene images and video created from her photographs. The material was shown to her fiancé, breaking off her engagement, and she attempted suicide before family intervention. Police registered an FIR; the accused, Vishal Gurjar, remained a fugitive.

Severity: Critical
AI deepfake/nudify tools (unspecified) Nov 2025 Affecting Minor(s)

West Bengal Teen - AI Deepfake Image Suicide (India)

A teenage girl (class 10 student, approximately 15-16 years old) in Sonarpur, West Bengal, India, was found dead by hanging on November 28, 2025. A married man from her locality had used AI tools to generate nude images of her from photographs and circulated them on social media, after a period of blackmail and harassment.

Severity: Critical
AI deepfake/nudify tools (unspecified) Oct 2025

Rahul Bharti - AI Deepfake Sextortion Death (India)

Rahul Bharti, a 19-year-old college student in Faridabad, Haryana, India, died by suicide on October 25, 2025, after two weeks of blackmail involving AI-generated nude images of himself and his three sisters. Perpetrators demanded Rs 20,000 and taunted him to kill himself.

Severity: Critical
AI deepfake/nudify tools (unspecified) Mar 2025 Affecting Minor(s)

Elijah Heacock - AI Sextortion Death (Kentucky)

Elijah 'Eli' Heacock, a 16-year-old student at Caverna High School in Glasgow, Kentucky, died by suicide on February 28, 2025, after being blackmailed with AI-generated nude images. Perpetrators demanded $3,000 and rejected a partial payment, telling him it was 'not enough.'

About this tracker

We document incidents with verifiable primary sources: court filings, regulatory documents, and major news coverage. This is not speculation or social media claims. Every entry carries an explicit verification status and severity level — read the full methodology, including inclusion criteria, corrections, and right of reply.

Have documentation of an incident we should include? Contact us.

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Last updated: Jul 19, 2026

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Why we publish this

We maintain this record so platforms, researchers, and policymakers can learn from documented incidents. That includes platforms that never work with us. The full dataset is free to cite and export (CC BY 4.0).