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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
8
Countries with reported events
6
Located 7 of 8 cases · 1 unknown
Languages in checked sources
4
Recorded for 8 of 8 cases

4 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 2 not yet reviewed and 2 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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8 of 452 published cases

Event date unknownFinlandUnidentified image tool

Finnish police investigate a small-town man suspected of using AI to fake nude images of dozens of women he knew and posting several hundred images of them on two porn sites; 23 criminal complaints by October 2026

Yle reported in May 2026 that a man in a small Finnish town is suspected of using AI to turn photos of women he knew, including friends, colleagues and relatives, into topless or fully nude images and posting them, among several hundred images of the women that included original clothed photos, on two pornography sites. The women did not know about the images until Yle contacted them. Police opened a preliminary investigation for unauthorised distribution of a sexual image and defamation. By 1 October 2026 the head of the investigation confirmed 23 criminal complaints, but no victim had yet been interviewed. Yle counts more than 50 victims, not all identified. The suspect was dismissed from his job and earlier denied to Yle by email that he knew about the matter.

Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 02/10/2026

17 Jan 2026GermanyUnidentified video tool

Lower Saxony CDU parliamentary group employee reportedly posted an AI-generated sexualized video of a colleague in a private staff chat group

Welt, dpa (in Tagesspiegel, news.de and t-online) and a press release of the CDU parliamentary group in the Lower Saxony state parliament report the following. On 17 January 2026 an employee of the parliamentary group posted a short AI-generated video showing a colleague in a sexualized manner in a private WhatsApp group connected to the group's staff. The Hannover public prosecutor's office had viewed the video, and a spokesperson said it was obviously an AI montage. After the group's leaders were informed (on 27 March according to press reports), the employee who created the video was dismissed without notice and a second employee, who had reportedly asked chat members in January to delete the video and keep silent, was suspended. The group informed the prosecutor's office, which said, as reported on 1 April 2026, that it had received no criminal complaint. On 9 July 2026 dpa reported, citing the prosecutor's office, that the Wennigsen local court had fined the former employee, who had made the video with the colleague's picture without consent and shared it in a chat group, 30 daily rates for a violation of the Kunsturhebergesetz, and that the decision is final. The colleague and the former employee are not named, and no statement by the colleague appears in the sources read.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026

Event date unknownAustraliaUnidentified image tool

Queensland school teacher charged over alleged AI-generated explicit images of staff and students

ABC reported on 23 and 24 July 2026 that police in Queensland, Australia charged a former secondary school teacher at a school there with child exploitation and computer misuse offences. Police allege the teacher used AI software on a work-issued laptop to generate explicit images depicting staff members and students. Police say a nine-month investigation began in October after they were notified of the material, and the school says it dismissed the teacher in October 2025, notified police and regulators, and that there is no evidence the material was shared. The number of people depicted and the creation date are not stated.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Nov 2025United StatesChatGPT

Stephens County, Oklahoma: according to the district attorney, Judge Lawrence Wheeler told state investigators that a November 2025 order in a paternity and custody case, which denied a parent's request for a psychological evaluation and reprimanded that parent's attorney, cited at least two nonexistent cases produced by ChatGPT; the order was vacated after the attorney challenged it

In November 2025 Stephens County Associate District Judge Lawrence Wheeler issued an order in a child paternity and custody case that denied one parent's request for a psychological evaluation of the other parent and reprimanded the requesting parent's attorney 'for stooping to such frivolous trial tactics'. The attorney challenged the order at the Oklahoma Supreme Court in February 2026, telling the justices that it relied on two cases that do not exist; the challenge was dismissed in March after Wheeler vacated the order, and he is no longer on the case. According to a 17 August 2026 letter from the Stephens County district attorney, Wheeler told the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation that he used ChatGPT for research and wrote the order himself, and that at least two citations in it produced by ChatGPT do not exist. The mother in the case told News 9 that learning the order's citations were allegedly fabricated was alarming because it concerned the custody of a child. The attorney general's office declined criminal prosecution; judicial discipline remains possible.

Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources · Added 29/09/2026

1 Jul 2024 to 30 Sept 2025Event location unknownUnidentified voice-cloning tool

Tokyo: voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda sued TikTok's operator over at least 188 monetised videos he says were narrated by a generative-AI imitation of his voice; on 30 September 2026 the Tokyo District Court held that a voice can be protected by publicity rights but dismissed his deletion claim because the videos had already been deleted

Kenjiro Tsuda, a Japanese voice actor known for roles in Jujutsu Kaisen, sued the operator of TikTok in the Tokyo District Court in November 2025, seeking removal of videos he says use a generative-AI imitation of his voice without permission. According to his complaint, as reported by Jiji Press, Nikkei and the Asahi Shimbun, an account run by an unidentified person posted at least 188 short videos on urban legends, the occult and trivia between July 2024 and September 2025, narrated in a voice modelled on his; the account had about 210,000 followers, videos averaged 1.47 million views, and his side says the poster earned 500,000 to 750,000 yen a month from TikTok's view-based payments. TikTok's operator said the voice was a generic male voice that the poster said came from AI trained on a friend's voice. The poster deleted the account in May 2026. On 30 September 2026 the court held, as a general principle, that a person's voice is a symbol of personality like a likeness and that using a performer's voice without permission solely to exploit its power to attract customers infringes the right of publicity, the first such ruling in Japan. It dismissed the claim because the videos were already gone and TikTok's operator had no remaining duty to delete them, and it did not decide whether these videos infringed his rights (Nikkei; Asahi Shimbun; TV Asahi). His lawyer said they did not plan to appeal.

Core concern Low reported severity Lawsuit Dismissed

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution disputed · 7 sources, 5 underlying accounts · Added 28/09/2026

11 Sept 2026 to 23 Sept 2026United States, CanadaChatGPT

Saginaw, Michigan: a credit union CEO used ChatGPT to put herself and family members in 'Lake America' sweatshirts in a photo taken before a trip to Halifax; after her sister reposted it publicly without its AI label she says she received death threats and the family came home early, and on 23 September 2026 the credit union said she was no longer employed

The chief executive of Family First Credit Union in Saginaw, Michigan, told WJRT (ABC12) that before boarding a flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 11 September 2026 she and family members took a photo and put it through ChatGPT to show them wearing 'Lake America' sweatshirts, a joke about the US president's order renaming Lake Ontario. She posted it to her private Facebook page with a marker saying it contained AI content; her sister reposted it publicly without the marker while they were in Halifax, and it spread in Canada as if the family had worn the shirts. The backlash concerned the image's political message; she said she would understand the anger of anyone in Halifax who thought the family had walked in wearing those sweatshirts. She said she was getting death threats and the family returned early; by 16 September she was back in the US. She called the post poor judgment, said she would not use AI again and that AI 'can make people think something's real that's not'. On 23 September the credit union said she was no longer an employee, effective immediately; it has not said whether she resigned or was dismissed, or why.

Core concern Medium reported severity Internal Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution unclear · 5 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 28/09/2026

22 Apr 2026 to 10 Jun 2026United StatesGrok

Bentonville, Arkansas: a children's photographer was charged with 200 counts after police found more than 1,700 sexual images and videos of children on his phone, much of the material allegedly made with Grok from his portrait photographs of juvenile clients; two families sued xAI in federal court and later voluntarily dismissed their suits

On 8 June 2026 Bentonville police received a tip about child sexual abuse material being generated online through Grok; the account was registered to a well-known local photographer, and a detective found images of a girl from his summer-camp photography classes that appeared to be AI prompts posing children and removing clothing. He was arrested on 10 June and charged with 100 counts of possessing sexually explicit material involving a child and 100 counts under Arkansas' deepfake and child-exploitation provisions; a hidden folder on his phone held more than 1,700 images and videos, most of prepubescent and pubescent girls, most so realistic the detective could not tell their origin, and more than 60 devices were seized. He pleaded not guilty on 20 July 2026 and is free on a $350,000 bond with home monitoring. Two federal lawsuits against xAI followed in the Eastern District of Arkansas on behalf of a ten-year-old former client (filed 23 July) and a nine-year-old girl (filed 29 July): the first complaint says her parents hired the photographer in spring 2026 for family portraits and were told by police on 10 June that from about 22 April her photographs had been fed into Grok to generate hundreds if not thousands of sexual images and videos, and that thousands more depicted other children; it faults Grok's marketed 'Spicy Mode'. Both plaintiffs filed notices of voluntary dismissal on 15 September 2026; the second notice, the only one read, is without prejudice and says the defendants had not been served, and neither docket shows a return of service. Local reporting says a Benton County state-court suit and a further federal suit were filed in August and that xAI, which says it made the cyber tip, sued the photographer, but those reports could not be read in full. The criminal case continues.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 11 sources, 8 underlying accounts · Added 03/08/2026

2022SingaporeWysa

Singapore Wysa Chatbot - Inadequate Crisis Support

Government-deployed mental health chatbot for teachers criticized for suggesting breathing exercises for serious crises including police-involved student incidents. Users described responses as 'gaslighting.' Inadequate support during actual mental health emergencies.

Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 13/01/2026

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: 02/10/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.