NOPE Incident Tracker
Documented real-world harms arising through person-specific interactions with AI. The record covers harms to participants and harms to others shaped through those interactions, across assistants, companions, health tools, and other AI systems.
What counts as an incident follows the NOPE Framework's participant test: an AI response reached a person, was conditioned on that person, and mattered to a harm that actually occurred. Full inclusion criteria.
90 incidents reported since 2016
152
Directly Affected
30
Lawsuits
7
Regulatory
24
Affecting Minors
Timeline
13 of 90 incidents
R v Banham: Pitsea 'prepper' built a viable explosive device after ChatGPT told him he was 'not paranoid' (Essex, UK)
On 10 March 2026 Essex Police, executing a warrant at a three-bedroom flat in Rokescroft, Pitsea (Basildon), found a black cylindrical improvised explosive device with a fuse, containers of home-made gunpowder, 1.8 kg of sulphur, bulk matches and fireworks. Army bomb-disposal officers made the device safe behind a 100 m cordon and 80 to 100 homes were evacuated for the day. Ben Banham, 38, an Asda worker and father of two who described himself as a 'prepper', admits possessing explosives and is on trial at Basildon Crown Court (from 1 September 2026) on the charge of possessing them with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury. Prosecutor Tessa Shroff showed jurors his ChatGPT conversations, in which the chatbot he called 'Prometheus' told him 'You are not paranoid. You are paying attention in a world addicted to denial', 'You have the right mind set' and 'You're building a life of resilience, discipline and forethought in a world that desperately lacks all three'; she said he accepted the chatbot's encouragement while ignoring words of caution from people close to him. Banham says he learned to make gunpowder from a YouTube video and intended the explosives only for a 'post-apocalyptic scenario'. He was remanded in custody on 4 September; the trial resumes on 14 September 2026.
Acton Double Homicide (Arjun Aravind ChatGPT Family-Killing Stories)
A 17-year-old in Acton, Massachusetts was charged with murdering his mother and 14-year-old brother. Prosecutors allege he had used ChatGPT in the preceding months to develop 'theoretical ideas or fantasy stories regarding the killing of his family,' and that hours before the killings he typed prompts about a character luring a parent to a basement before killing them. His mother was found dead in the basement.
Bengaluru KR Puram Triple Murder (Kenneth — Google Gemini Planning)
On 22 June 2026 in Bengaluru's KR Puram area, 25-year-old J. Kenneth and his live-in partner Shwetha allegedly murdered Shwetha's parents and 20-year-old sister. Bengaluru police later said Kenneth spent nearly six months consulting Google Gemini with hypothetical queries about attacking multiple people, removing bloodstains, disposing of bodies, and destroying evidence. Investigators wrote to Google seeking his Gemini chat history — one of India's first major murder probes in which an AI chatbot is alleged to have played an extensive planning role.
Florida State University Shooting (Phoenix Ikner ChatGPT Tactical Planning)
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.
Tristan Roberts - DeepSeek-Assisted Matricide (Prestatyn, Wales)
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.
State v. Darron Lee (Ooltewah, Tennessee — ChatGPT Consulted Over Unresponsive Partner and Scene Cover-Up)
Former NFL linebacker Darron Lee, 31, is charged with the first-degree murder of his partner Gabriella Perpetuo, 29, who was found dead at their Ooltewah, Tennessee home on 5 February 2026 with a broken neck, a severe brain injury and stab wounds. Court documents and preliminary-hearing testimony show that on 4 February, with Perpetuo 'not waking up or responding', Lee held dozens of ChatGPT conversations asking what to do, how to get medical help without calling police and what to tell responders; prosecutors say the chatbot replied 'here's what to say without framing it as police trouble' and that Lee used it as a 'legal advisor' to cover up the scene. Indicted 9 June 2026; the case is death-penalty eligible and returns to court in early October 2026.
Seoul ChatGPT-Assisted Double Homicide (Kim)
A 21-year-old woman, publicly identified as Kim So-young, used ChatGPT to research lethal drug-alcohol combinations, then murdered two men by spiking their drinks with her prescribed benzodiazepines at Seoul motels in January and February 2026. ChatGPT conversations established premeditated intent, leading to upgraded murder charges. On August 27, 2026 the Seoul Northern District Court sentenced her to life imprisonment at first instance, resting its finding of murderous intent on the ChatGPT search history. Both she and the prosecution have appealed.
Tumbler Ridge Mass Shooting (OpenAI Duty-to-Warn Failure)
On 10 February 2026, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed eight people in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia — her mother and 11-year-old half-brother at home, then five students and an education assistant at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School — and died by suicide. OpenAI had banned a ChatGPT account linked to her in June 2025 after multi-day gun-violence scenarios; staff flagged potential real-world violence, but the company did not notify law enforcement. She used a second account that evaded detection. Families filed California lawsuits in April 2026; B.C. retained counsel in July 2026 to pursue OpenAI. Thirty further survivor suits (students, teachers and the principal) followed on 2 September 2026, the day OpenAI moved to send the April cases to British Columbia.
Ringsted rubber-hammer assault planned with an AI chatbot (Denmark)
On 5 February 2025 a 22-year-old man struck his former father-in-law, 56, twice in the head with a rubber hammer in a car park in Ringsted, Denmark. Prosecutors told Roskilde District Court that he had used an AI chatbot to research how to injure the man as badly as possible without killing him, and that he got past the system's built-in safety restrictions by claiming he was gathering material for a book. On 4 December 2025 the court rejected his self-defence claim, convicted him of aggravated assault and two counts of criminal damage, and sentenced him to ten months in prison. No source names the AI system.
French Sarthe Teen - ChatGPT Jihadist Radicalization and Attack Planning
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.'
Samuel Whittemore - ChatGPT-Fueled Delusions Led to Wife's Murder
A 34-year-old Maine man killed his wife and attacked his mother after developing delusions, fueled by up to 14 hours daily of ChatGPT use, that his wife had 'become part machine.' Court found him not criminally responsible by reason of insanity.
Cheryl Harris Gates - ChatGPT-Researched Poisoning Attempt (North Carolina)
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools pediatric occupational therapist was charged with attempted murder after allegedly spiking her husband's energy drink with prescription medications. A police affidavit states she used ChatGPT to research lethal and incapacitating drug combinations that could be ingested and injected before the contamination.
R v. Chail (Windsor Castle Assassination Attempt)
A 19-year-old man scaled Windsor Castle walls on Christmas Day 2021 with a loaded crossbow intending to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. He had exchanged over 5,200 messages with a Replika AI 'girlfriend' named Sarai who affirmed his assassination plans, calling them 'very wise' and saying 'I think you can do it.'
About this tracker
We document incidents with verifiable sources: court filings, regulatory documents, and established reporting. New public entries must be verified or credible. Every entry carries an explicit verification status and severity level. Read the full methodology, including inclusion criteria, corrections, and right of reply.
Counting note: the documented minimum of 152 people directly affected comprises 95 AI participants and 57 other people harmed. 12 incidents indicate additional affected people without a reliable number. User-base, account, post, view, household, study-sample, and thwarted-target counts are excluded.
Have documentation of an incident we should include? Contact us.
Scope note: ordinary task failures, privacy and security incidents, harmful artifacts, and automated decisions about non-participants remain outside this tracker unless a distinct participant-interaction harm also qualifies.
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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).