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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
87
Countries with reported events
25
Located 68 of 87 cases · 19 unknown
Languages in checked sources
20
Recorded for 87 of 87 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.

No known event years in this selection.

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87 of 1099 published cases · page 1 of 5

Event date unknownIndonesiaUnidentified image and video tool

Semarang court jails university student for a year over AI-edited sexual images made with faces from the student's former high school

In October 2025 indecent photos and videos showing the faces of female students and at least one teacher of a public high school in Semarang, Central Java, spread on X from the account of a university student in Semarang who had attended the school. Kompas described the videos as made with AI editing. The student posted an apology on the school's Instagram account saying the student had edited and uploaded friends' photos and videos without permission. Central Java police's cyber directorate investigated, named the student a suspect and took the student into custody on 13 November 2025; the police spokesman said investigators had established the elements of an AI-based pornography offence that also breached the electronic information and transactions law. On 5 March 2026 Semarang District Court sentenced the student to one year in prison and a 2-billion-rupiah fine, more than the seven months prosecutors had sought. According to ANTARA, the court found that the student had produced 1,100 pornographic photo and video files, that the content remained publicly accessible and that the editing caused the victims psychological trauma. Both sides said they would consider the verdict; no appeal outcome was found.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

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

Event date unknownThailandUnidentified video tool

Thai PBS Verify says a Crystallum AI investment advert used an AI deepfake of a former NHK World anchor; she said she was shocked her image was used

In August 2025 Thai PBS Verify reported a Facebook advert that carried the Thai PBS World Tonight logo and showed a news anchor apparently interviewing two prominent Thai business leaders about an investment scheme called Crystallum AI. The anchor was a former NHK World presenter who had never anchored for Thai PBS. Thai PBS Verify traced the footage to a 2013 English-language report about flood housing, found that the logo had been changed and the English reporting replaced with a synthesized Thai voice, and said an AI detection tool gave a 72.3% probability that the clip was an AI deepfake. The former anchor said she was shocked her image was used to deceive people into investing and that it could discredit her reputation, and spoke out to warn others. No person who invested after seeing the advert is described.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

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

Event date unknownThailandUnidentified video tool

Thai PBS Verify says Facebook investment advert used an AI deepfake of a Thai PBS World anchor; the anchor said viewers could take it for real news

In mid-2025 a Facebook page using a news outlet's logo ran a two-minute video as adverts in which a Thai PBS World news anchor appeared to interview the chief executive of the Miss Universe Organization about an online investment platform said to turn 8,000 baht into as much as 800,000 baht. Thai PBS Verify reported on 22 July 2025 that the clip was an AI deepfake: it traced the anchor's footage to a Thai PBS World Tonight report of 24 June 2025, and the chairman of the company Guardian AI, whom it consulted as an AI image technology specialist, cited lip movements that do not match the voice and blurred facial features. The anchor told Thai PBS Verify that ordinary viewers could mistake it for real news, that this was the most convincing of at least three or four such incidents in a year, and that she was worried. No person who invested after seeing the advert is described.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/11/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified image tool

Victorian court hears police found images on a man's phone in which AI put his stepdaughter's face on explicit images; he pleaded guilty to child offences

A central Victorian man pleaded guilty in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on 20 October 2026 to charges including an indecent act with a child under 16 and possessing and producing child abuse material, the Bendigo Advertiser reported on 29 October. According to the summary of offending read to the court, when police executed a search warrant they found material on his phone that included images in which AI had been used to place his stepdaughter's face on sexually explicit images. The indecent-act charge concerns an incident in 2015, when she was 13. The man cannot be named for legal reasons. The police prosecutor asked for a term of imprisonment; the magistrate adjourned sentencing to 3 December 2026.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 31/10/2026

Event date unknownTaiwan, ChinaUnidentified video tool

Taiwan police say a ring used AI deepfake face videos of at least 55 people in China to pass a digital-yuan app's identity check and take about NT$200 million

Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau said on 2 February 2026 that a fraud-services ring working with offshore scam call centres obtained personal data and photos of people in mainland China and used deepfake technology, which public broadcaster PTS reports as AI, to make face-verification videos of the victims. The videos passed the identity check of China's digital-yuan (e-CNY) app, letting the ring bind the victims' bank accounts and move their savings. Police count at least 55 victims and losses of about NT$200 million. Officers raided the ring's flat in Beitun, Taichung, in November 2024, and its financier was arrested in Thailand and returned to Taiwan; Taichung prosecutors indicted four people for fraud, computer misuse and organised crime. The dates of the individual thefts are not reported.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/10/2026

Event date unknownTaiwanUnidentified video tool

Taiwan police say a Taichung fraud call centre used an AI face-swap tool in video calls to win the trust of women in the US and Canada

Taiwanese police said in June 2025 that a fraud call centre in Shalu district, Taichung, had targeted overseas Chinese women in the United States and Canada with romance-investment fraud. According to the police account reported by SETN and carried by Yahoo News Taiwan on 4 June 2025, the call centre created a range of male personas, cultivated relationships with the women, and video-chatted with them through an 'AI face replacement tool' that swapped the operator's face for a persona's; because the picture was very realistic, police say, many victims believed it, after which they were talked into investing in fake energy products and sending money to accounts the suspects supplied. Police say analysis of seized phones identified seven women in the US and Canada who were defrauded, with losses of about NT$3.5 million so far, and that the number of victims and the amount were still being compiled. A photo caption in the report says officers demonstrated the face-replacement tool. The call centre was raided in November 2024, and nine suspects were referred to Taichung prosecutors, seven of them detained; no indictment or verdict has been found.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 29/10/2026

Event date unknownKosovoUnidentified video tool

Fact-checkers say AI-manipulated videos of a former LDK MP and party youth members circulated before Kosovo's June 2026 election; he says they are manipulated

Kallxo's fact-checking unit Krypometer reported on 15 May 2026, ahead of Kosovo's 7 June early election, that a Facebook profile had published two videos involving Paris Guri, a former member of parliament for the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). The first showed members of the LDK Youth Forum, with Guri among them, holding bottles of milk. Krypometer says the HIVE detector gave a 97 per cent probability that it was edited with AI, and a Google Lens search found the original photo, published by Guri, in which the group raise two fingers, the LDK's symbol, instead. The second video purported to show Guri praising Albin Kurti and was shared with a Serbian-language caption calling him a beauty; Krypometer says HIVE results show the video and its speech were manipulated with AI. Guri told Krypometer the videos are manipulated. Who made them, which tool was used and how widely they spread are not reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 28/10/2026

Event date unknownBrazilUnidentified video tool

Rio Grande do Sul police say gang used deepfake video of Gisele Bündchen to sell a free skincare kit; Porto Alegre woman who paid the fee got nothing

A woman in Porto Alegre, Brazil, saw an online video in which the model Gisele Bündchen appeared to promote a free skincare kit, paid the R$44.57 shipping fee and received nothing. Her police report, registered on 4 August 2024, led the Rio Grande do Sul Civil Police to Operation Modo Selva. On 1 October 2025 police executed 26 court orders in five states against a group they say used deepfake videos of celebrities, including Gisele Bündchen and several TV presenters, in fake product promotions; four people had been arrested by the time of the reports. The investigating delegate said the criminals had created a deepfake of the model's image and voice. Police say the scheme moved at least R$20 million, and assets worth up to R$210 million were frozen. The model thanked police for finding criminals who use artificial intelligence for online scams. No charge or trial outcome has been reported since.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 27/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool

Fact-checkers say videos impersonating an Albanian cardiologist and a journalist to sell hypertension pills were likely AI-made; both men disowned them

A Facebook page in the name of the Albanian cardiologist Dr. Spiro Qirko published a video claiming he had discovered a cure for hypertension, and a second video presented as an interview of him by the journalist Ilir Topi, promoting a product called Hyper Caps. Kallxo's fact-checking unit Krypometer, in an article of 30 March 2026, reports that it ran the video through the AI-content detector Hive Moderation, which gave a 96.4% probability that the video and the speech were AI-generated, and that Hyper Caps is not on the Kosovo medicines agency's list of products authorised for marketing. Both men told Krypometer they had nothing to do with the page or the video. The journalist said it was AI-generated and fake, and the cardiologist said he felt deeply offended by the fraud and had never recommended herbal remedies for hypertension. Who made the videos, how widely they circulated and whether anyone bought the product are not reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 27/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified voice-cloning and deepfake tool

Nigeria: police say a suspect arrested in Lagos used AI voice cloning and deepfake technology to impersonate Elon Musk to victims of an investment scheme

The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) said at a press briefing in Abuja on Friday 23 October 2026 that its operatives arrested three suspects in Lekki, Lagos State, on 14 October over alleged identity theft, investment fraud and money laundering. According to the centre's director, the suspects allegedly operated fake social media accounts impersonating prominent personalities to trick victims into transferring money, and were linked to a cryptocurrency investment scheme promoted through a website called Bitcoin Trading Hub. Investigators said one of the suspects used artificial intelligence voice cloning and deepfake technology to impersonate Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and communicate with victims, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. The police did not say how they established the AI use or which tools were involved, how many people were deceived or how much they lost. Seized devices were undergoing forensic examination to identify victims and trace the proceeds, and the three suspects remained in custody.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 25/10/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool

New Jersey prosecutor says man posted AI-generated deepfake nude images of two adults with their real names and photos; charged

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office in New Jersey announced on 22 October 2026 the arrest of a man on charges of creating and distributing deceptive visual media, invasion of privacy, cyber-harassment and harassment. According to authorities, as reported by NJ.com, social-media posts showed two adult victims' real names and photographs alongside AI-generated deepfake nude images, and investigators identified him as the person behind the accounts. The investigation began in May 2026. The charges are unproven.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 24/10/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image and video tool

Texas: affidavit says a state police sergeant's hard drive held AI-modified sexual images of female colleagues and deepfake nude images of girls

The Monitor (MyRGV) reports, citing a probable cause affidavit, that a Texas Department of Public Safety staff sergeant was arrested on 3 March 2025 on a charge of possession or promotion of child pornography after his wife handed investigators a hard drive she had found. According to the affidavit, the drive held images of girls under 18 with their genitals exposed that "had been deepfake", and a Texas Rangers investigator said it also held sexually explicit videos and pictures of current female DPS employees' faces modified using an artificial intelligence application. DPS suspended him with pay and opened an administrative investigation; he was released on a $300,000 bond. He is presumed innocent, and no later outcome was found.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 24/10/2026

Event date unknownChinaUnidentified image tool

Beijing prosecutors say a man used an AI undress tool to forge about 7,000 nude images of women, including students and colleagues, and sold them to 351 buyers

Beijing police and the Haidian District People's Procuratorate, as reported by CCTV in June 2024 and again in July 2026, said a 24-year-old technician at an internet company used AI "one-click undress" software to make fake nude images from ordinary photos that customers sent him, advertising the service on an overseas social-media platform at 1.5 yuan an image. Prosecutors said that over a few months he made nearly 7,000 such images and sold them to 351 people, and that the women depicted included students, teachers and colleagues of the customers. The case came to light after a police report in Haidian district. The procuratorate charged him with spreading obscene material for profit and also filed a public-interest suit because the images infringed the rights of unspecified people. He admitted knowing the images could be used for extortion or to damage people's reputations. CCTV reported in July 2026 that in 2024 he was sentenced to three years in prison for making and selling obscene material for profit; the result of the public-interest suit is not reported in the sources read.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 22/10/2026

Event date unknownRussiaUnidentified video tool

Primorye police say fraudsters used a deepfake of the regional governor in a video call to draw a pensioner into a month-long scam

The press service of the Interior Ministry's Primorsky Krai directorate said on 21 October 2026 that it had stopped an online fraud in which scammers used deepfake technology. According to the release, a 77-year-old resident of the Khorolsky district was sent a video-conference link in a messenger app and saw on screen a person resembling the region's governor, who told him of a cyberattack on the regional administration and stolen funds routed abroad through his bank account. He was passed to accomplices posing as law enforcement and financial-monitoring officials, who called him daily for a month and urged him to hand over his savings. He withdrew one million roubles but became suspicious and went to the police, who arrested a courier when he handed her a dummy package. A criminal case for attempted large-scale fraud was opened. The police did not say how they established that a deepfake was used.

Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 22/10/2026

Event date unknownChinaUnidentified video tool

Hangzhou: man who sold AI face-swap obscene videos, including custom swaps of private people's faces, jailed 7 years 3 months; court orders 60,000 yuan

According to Hangzhou prosecutors and courts as reported by CCTV and relayed by Xinhua in March 2024, police in Xiaoshan district opened a case in August 2022 after finding that a local man was spreading large numbers of obscene videos made with AI technology. Prosecutors said he used AI face-swap software to put faces onto obscene videos, spread them in paid social-media groups to attract customers, sold the software and tutorials, and took custom orders, swapping in the faces of public figures and of private people; one customer asked for the face of a woman he had a crush on. Victims included several well-known public figures and many unspecified private people. In a civil public-interest suit brought by prosecutors, the Hangzhou Internet Court ordered him to delete the personal information he had obtained, apologise publicly and pay 60,000 yuan for personal-information protection. In November 2023 the Xiaoshan District People's Court sentenced him to seven years and three months in prison and a 60,000-yuan fine for making and spreading obscene material for profit.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 22/10/2026

Event date unknownHong Kong SAR ChinaUnidentified video tool

Hong Kong: police say an Arup finance worker sent HK$200 million after a video call with deepfake CFO and colleagues; firm confirms fake voices and images

Hong Kong police said at a press briefing reported by CNN on 4 February 2024 that a finance worker at a multinational firm had been duped into attending a video call with what appeared to be the company's UK-based chief financial officer and other staff, all of whom were deepfake recreations, and had then remitted a total of HK$200 million (about US$25.6 million). In May 2024 the British engineering firm Arup confirmed to CNN and the Guardian that it was the company involved, that it had notified Hong Kong police in January 2024, and that fake voices and images were used. The worker was not named.

Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened

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

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified image tool

Kaiserslautern police say a woman was extorted with an AI-generated nude photo of her and threatened with its publication

The Westpfalz police headquarters reported on 3 June 2026, in a release datelined Kaiserslautern, that a woman had been extorted with an AI-generated nude photo. According to the police's current findings, a man edited a picture of her with artificial intelligence; through a messaging service he demanded a mid four-figure sum and threatened to publish the photo. She went to the police on Tuesday 2 June and an investigation was opened.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 20/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool

Lippe district police say a man lost his savings and took out a loan after investment adverts with AI-generated deepfake videos of supposed TV shows

The Lippe police reported on 20 February 2026 that a man from the district had recently been defrauded through a supposed online trading platform, with a five-figure loss. According to the police, the fraudsters used adverts with AI-generated deepfake videos from supposed television programmes, repeatedly demanded fees after he registered and steered him to transfers to crypto exchanges. He was talked into taking out a loan to make further deposits, never received a payout, lost his savings and got into financial difficulty because of the loan. The police do not say whom the videos showed or how they established that they were AI-generated.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 20/10/2026

Event date unknownNetherlandsUnidentified image tool

Gelderland, Netherlands: police arrest a man suspected of making and spreading sexual deepnudes; 130 victims reported repeated harassment

Dutch police said on 4 September 2025 that they had arrested a man in a Gelderland municipality the day before on suspicion of making sexually explicit deepfakes, which they call deepnudes, and spreading them through channels such as WhatsApp groups, and of sending women unsolicited photos of his genitals and sexual messages. According to the police, 130 victims from across the country reported to them over recent years and were regularly and repeatedly harassed; NOS reports, citing the police, that images were manipulated for some of them, that the exact number is unclear, and that the police suspect the conduct began in 2021 or 2022. The police seized digital data carriers and said the Public Prosecution Service would decide on the consequences. No tool is named.

Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 19/10/2026

Event date unknownFranceUnidentified image tool

Metz prosecutor says a soldier used the French armed forces' AI system to make nude images of two female colleagues; he is under formal investigation

The Metz deputy prosecutor told AFP in August 2026 that a soldier based in Moselle had used the artificial-intelligence system of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces to create images showing two female colleagues undressed, and that both colleagues had filed complaints against him. The prosecutor said the investigation also found more than 10,000 requests to the same system seeking child sexual abuse imagery, and that a search of his devices confirmed his use of the ministry's AI. Taken into custody on 22 July 2026, he admitted the facts according to the prosecutor and was placed under formal investigation and remanded in custody on 24 July. The judicial investigation includes the offence of disseminating algorithmically generated sexual content reproducing the image of a non-consenting person. When the colleague images were made and how widely they circulated are not stated.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 3 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: 04/11/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.