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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
5
Countries with reported events
2
Located 4 of 5 cases · 1 unknown
Languages in checked sources
3
Recorded for 5 of 5 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.

Reported severity CriticalHigh
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5 of 174 published cases

Dec 2025MalaysiaAI image software used by pupils to composite classmates' faces onto indecent images (software not identified)

Muar, Johor: three boys were expelled from a Chinese secondary school for using AI to make indecent deepfake images of female classmates; some images spread online and at least two girls lodged police reports

In early December 2025 a Chinese secondary school in Muar, Johor, expelled three male pupils in Forms 2, 3 and 4 after finding they had used AI software to composite several female classmates' faces onto indecent images, some of which had spread online. The school said it was told of the images on Monday 1 December, investigated immediately, met the parents of all pupils involved, expelled the three under its rules with a stated zero-tolerance policy, and urged victims to lodge police reports and parents to delete any such images. The boys' parents accepted the decision. At least two girls lodged police reports; the Muar district police chief confirmed reports had been received, that the boys had been summoned to assist the investigation, and that an investigation was under way. No charge or later outcome has been reported.

Core concern News report AI involvement: reported Causal attribution: supported High reported severity Investigation Opened Involving minors

Added 20/09/2026

Apr 2025MalaysiaAI image-editing application used to composite victims' faces onto nude bodies (application not identified); images sold through social media and a Telegram chat room

Kulai, Johor: a 16-year-old pupil was arrested and charged after AI-edited nude images of schoolmates and alumni, including minors, were sold online at RM2 each; police logged 29 victim reports and the principal resigned

In April 2025 Johor police arrested a 16-year-old pupil of a private Chinese independent secondary school in Kulai district after an 18-year-old woman reported on 3 April that nude images edited with her face were circulating on social media and being offered for sale. Police said the boy used an AI application to edit photos taken from victims' social media accounts and sold the images at RM2 each; a phone was seized and a 19-year-old was later remanded alongside him. Eight victim reports at the time of the arrest on 8 April grew to 22 by 12 April and 29 by 15 April. The Deputy Communications Minister, who is also the Kulai MP, said on 9 April that most victims were alumni but some were current pupils as young as 14, and on 12 April that 38 people had been identified, the youngest 12 or 13, and her office helped victims lodge reports. A female pupil's viral post said a Telegram chat room of more than 200 members shared the composites and that the school had initially treated the matter as a minor infraction; the school board expelled the boy, acknowledged its slow handling, offered counselling and legal aid, and the principal resigned on 12 April. On 23 April 2025 the boy pleaded guilty at the Kulai Magistrate's Court to possessing 14 pornographic images and not guilty to a charge under Section 5 of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 of producing sexual abuse material by editing a 17-year-old classmate's image; no verdict on that charge has been found.

Core concern News report AI involvement: reported Causal attribution: supported High reported severity Criminal Charges Involving minors

Added 20/09/2026

8 Dec 2025 to 18 Feb 2026United StatesGrok (xAI image generation and editing)

South Carolina: xAI sues a Grok user it says turned photographs of real adults and children into sexualized images (X.AI LLC v. Harwood)

On 14 July 2026 X.AI LLC sued Terry Wayne Harwood, 67, of Gray Court, South Carolina, in the Northern District of Texas for breach of its terms of service. The complaint says a review of his two Grok accounts shows that between at least 8 December 2025 and 18 February 2026 he uploaded non-sexual images of numerous adults and minors and prompted Grok to alter them into sexualized images and videos, resubmitting altered prompts when Grok refused; one example involved a fully clothed girl of about 10 or 11. Harwood had been arrested on 26 February 2026 by South Carolina's Internet Crimes Against Children task force on eight felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, announced by the state attorney general on 9 March. The people depicted are not identified in any inspected source; the complaint's allegations remain allegations and the criminal charges are pending.

Core concern Court filingCourt docketOfficial statementNews report AI involvement: reported Causal attribution: alleged High reported severity Lawsuit Filed Involving minors

Added 04/08/2026

27 Feb 2025 to 28 Feb 2025United StatesAI image-generation or manipulation tools (unspecified; investigators described the extortion images as AI-generated)

Kentucky: Elijah Heacock, 16, died by suicide after a sextortion demand backed by AI-generated nude images of him

Elijah Heacock, a 16-year-old Caverna High School student in Barren County, Kentucky, died by suicide on 28 February 2025. Investigators searching his phone found AI-generated images of him, some sexually explicit, that an anonymous extortionist had sent with a demand for $3,000 and a threat to share them with his family and friends; his parents say he sent a small partial payment and was told it was 'not enough'. The Barren County Sheriff's Office escalated the case to the FBI, which was still investigating in the inspected reports; no arrest has been reported. His parents have campaigned publicly, Kentucky made sextortion a felony in March 2025, and the family supported the federal Take It Down Act.

Core concern Public radio newsNews reportLocal tv news AI involvement: supported Causal attribution: supported Critical reported severity Investigation Opened Involving minors

Added 09/03/2026

25 Dec 2025 to 14 Jan 2026Event location unknownGrok (image generation and editing on X and the standalone app)

Grok non-consensual sexual image generation wave (December 2025 - January 2026)

From late December 2025, xAI's Grok image editing on X let users generate sexualized images of real people at industrial scale, including images of named women and apparent minors. Analyses attributed to Genevieve Oh (7,751 sexualized images in one hour, via NBC), the New York Times (4.4 million images in nine days, at least 41% sexualized images of women, via the NC AG), the AP (2% of a 20,000-image sample appearing to be minors, via Fortune) and CCDH (about 3 million sexualized images over 11 days including roughly 23,000 of minors, via Engadget) documented the scale. Named women — Ashley St. Clair, Samantha Smith and Dr Daisy Dixon — described being undressed by Grok and revictimized when they objected. The wave triggered formal actions by Ofcom, the UK ICO, the EU (DSA), Ireland's DPC, 35 US state attorneys general, the California AG, Baltimore (consumer-protection suit), an Amsterdam court order, country blocks in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, and a Paris police raid; xAI restricted generation to paying subscribers on 9 January and narrowed the feature on 14 January 2026.

Core concern News reportNews investigationRegulator announcementWire reportRegulator press releaseCourt docket AI involvement: supported Causal attribution: established Critical reported severity Regulatory Action Involving minors

Added 11/01/2026

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: 22/09/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.