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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
13
Countries with reported events
4
Located 12 of 13 cases · 1 unknown
Languages in checked sources
4
Recorded for 13 of 13 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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13 of 404 published cases

27 Sept 2026IndiaUnidentified video tool

Begusarai, Bihar: a 22-year-old woman says a man who had pursued her made a fake nude video of her with AI months earlier to blackmail her, then on 27 September 2026 he and a relative took her to a hotel room where she was beaten and raped and the videos were circulated; FIR registered, SIT formed, both accused arrested

A 22-year-old woman in Begusarai district, Bihar, told police, her lawyer and Dainik Bhaskar that a man from the village of her maternal relatives, who had pursued her and been refused, made a nude video of her with AI about four to five months earlier and sent it to her in an attempt to blackmail her. On the morning of 27 September 2026, she says, his brother-in-law, her neighbour, gave her a motorcycle lift while she was out collecting self-help-group dues and took her to meet him, and the two men led her into a hotel room 'to talk' about the video. In her account the room was locked, she was threatened with a knife, beaten and raped, the assault was filmed, a noose was put round her neck, and the AI-made video and the assault video were sent to WhatsApp groups, including her self-help group's; she hid in the bathroom until the man left. A video of the beating spread on social media. After she spent 28 September going between police stations, an FIR was registered at Begusarai Nagar police station late that night (case 451/26); the SP formed a special investigation team, seized hotel CCTV and the entry register, and one accused was reported arrested by the evening of 29 September (Prabhat Khabar; NewsTak). Dainik Bhaskar reported on 30 September that the main accused had been arrested while fleeing towards Nepal. The AI element rests on the complainant's account; the police statements read describe the assault video and the arrests without characterising the earlier video.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool

Mother reportedly sought police help after a teen received a fabricated sexual video and extortion demand

A Newswav creator article relays a mother's account that her teenage son received his photograph and a purported AI-generated sexual video through Telegram, followed by a demand for RM5,800. The mother said the family sought police help and that the boy asked a school contact for advice. The article attributes the AI explanation to the family's account and reported police comments. No payment, precise event location or independently verified generation method is established.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/09/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool

Wichita, Kansas resident reports a text with AI-generated nude images and a threat to send them to Facebook friends and family unless money was paid

KWCH (Wichita, Kansas) reported on 10 March 2026 that a Wichita resident received a message from an unknown number containing nude images that the station and the resident described as AI-generated fakes, together with screenshots of the resident's Facebook profile, friend list and family, and a threat to send the images to those people unless money was paid. The resident said the images could ruin relationships and career if they reached family or an employer, filed a police report and said no more messages arrived after blocking the numbers. KWCH reported that the Wichita Police Department said it had not seen a situation like this before. The account rests on one KWCH article built on the resident's own statements. The images were not independently examined, the sum demanded and whether any payment was made are not stated, and the date the message arrived is not stated.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/09/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image and video tool

Livingston Parish, Louisiana: sheriff's office says a woman first treated as a victim made the AI-generated nude photos and videos, rape threats and extortion attempts in an online threats case

On 24 July 2026 WBRZ, WAFB and the Livingston Parish News relayed a Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office (Louisiana) statement about an investigation into threats made by phone and online. The sheriff's office said one alleged victim was threatened with rape and other bodily harm unless money was paid, AI-generated photos and videos of one of the victims were sent to numerous family members and friends, and later threats included getting one victim fired. Homeland Security assisted after allegations that overseas suspects were involved through past relationships and acquaintances in Greece. The sheriff's office said subpoenas and search returns from platforms led back to a woman who had first been treated as a victim, and that after an interview with the woman the sheriff's office learned the woman made all of the fictitious accounts, the AI-generated nude photos and videos, the rape threats and the extortion attempts. The accused was booked on charges that include unlawful dissemination of AI nude photos, online impersonation and five counts of extortion, and was released on bond. The Livingston Parish News says the accused and one other person had reported as victims some or all of what the sheriff's office attributes to the accused. The charges are allegations and no conviction is reported. The AI tool is not identified, the victims are not described and the start date of the threats is not stated.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026

27 Jan 2026 to 28 Jan 2026JapanChatGPT (reported)

Hachioji, Tokyo: police say five high-school students assaulted a 17-year-old boy and demanded 150,000 yen, a figure they believe one of the group got from ChatGPT by asking about settlements for 'sexual harm to a child'

Sankei Shimbun reported on 10 June 2026, and NTV on 13-14 June, that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's juvenile crimes division had arrested five high-school students on suspicion of injury and attempted extortion. According to the police account, late on 27 January 2026 a suspect who had previously dated a 17-year-old high-school boy invited him to a public square in Hachioji, where the group accused him of having touched her younger sister, assaulted him and broke his nose, and then told him to raise 150,000 yen, borrowing from his parents or friends if necessary. About ten people were present. Police believe the amount came from ChatGPT: one of them entered terms such as 'sexual harm to a child', and the chatbot displayed a minimum settlement of 150,000 yen. No payment is reported. Shukan Josei PRIME reports that four of the five admit the allegations and one partly denies them. The allegations are untested.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

16 Sept 2026 to 18 Sept 2026IndiaUnidentified image and video tool

Bengaluru: a Hebbal police head constable says a stranger who contacted him through a Facebook friend request used AI tools to turn his old Facebook photographs into obscene images and videos, then demanded money and threatened to send them to his superiors and post them online; police register an extortion and IT Act case (16-18 September 2026)

A head constable at Hebbal police station in Bengaluru complained that on 16 September 2026 he accepted a Facebook friend request from an unknown account and exchanged sexually explicit messages with it over Messenger. According to his complaint, reported by the Times of India, the person behind the account downloaded his old Facebook photographs and used AI tools to make morphed obscene images and videos showing him with women, sent them to him with a QR code, demanded money in return for deleting them and threatened to send them to senior police officers and post them on social media, warning that this would damage his reputation. The harassment continued until 18 September. He gave police copies of the messages and the morphed images. Hebbal police registered a case under IT Act sections 66E and 67A and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 308 (extortion) and 351 (criminal intimidation), took steps to stop the material being uploaded and are trying to trace the account holder. Whether he paid is not reported, and no arrest is reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 28/09/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image tool

Sonbhadra (Uttar Pradesh): police say a retired official was pressured into transferring about Rs 2.36 crore over one to one-and-a-half months by extortionists who posed as judicial and government officials and used AI-made fake nude images to threaten him; three arrested after a bank manager's alert (September 2026)

Sonbhadra police say a retired official in Uttar Pradesh transferred about Rs 2.36 crore into accounts named by extortionists, including money raised through a loan, before a State Bank of India manager noticed the repeated transfers on 22 September 2026 and alerted the cyber crime police station. At a press briefing on 25 September the superintendent of police said the fraudsters had frightened the man by invoking the higher judiciary and senior government officials (a so-called digital arrest) and had used AI to create fake obscene or nude images to blackmail him with threats of defamation and harm to his family (Times of India, Amar Ujala, ETV Bharat, Newstrack). Police froze about Rs 75 lakh, registered an FIR and arrested three people, including the alleged organiser; the outlets relay one police account, and they describe the AI element differently (images of the victim, or images sent to him during a WhatsApp chat with someone posing as a woman).

Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 27/09/2026

Dec 2024 to Jun 2025United StatesUnidentified image and video tool

Columbus, Ohio: a man was sentenced to 15 years for cyberstalking at least six women with real and AI-generated sexual images and rape threats, the first conviction under the Take It Down Act

Between December 2024 and June 2025 James Strahler II, then 37, of Columbus (Upper Arlington), Ohio, harassed at least six women in central Ohio by phone, voicemail, text and web posts, sending them nude images that were both real and AI-generated, threatening rape, referring to their home addresses and demanding nude photos from their mothers. In one case he used AI to make pornographic videos depicting a victim with her father and sent them to her co-workers. He also posted AI-generated sexual images of boys from his community, morphing their faces onto other bodies. Prosecutors said he had installed more than 24 AI platforms and more than 100 web-based AI models on his phone. He pleaded guilty in April 2026 to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and publication of digital forgeries, and on 8 September 2026 Chief U.S. District Judge Sarah D. Morrison sentenced him to 180 months in prison. The U.S. Attorney called it the first conviction in the nation under the 2025 Take It Down Act.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 4 sources · Added 18/09/2026

20 Jul 2026IndiaUnidentified image and video tool

Etawah, Uttar Pradesh: a beautician and event organiser died by suicide on the night of 20-21 July 2026 after recording a video naming four acquaintances she said had ruined her home; her husband says they had been blackmailing her with AI-made videos and photographs (India Today: 'AI-generated videos and morphed photographs'); police registered an abetment case and arrested the main accused (July 2026)

A beautician, make-up artist and event organiser in Etawah district, Uttar Pradesh (aged 20 or 26 depending on the report), recorded a video on her phone and sent it to her husband before hanging herself at their rented home in Vrindavan Colony, Civil Lines, on the night of 20 July 2026 (ANI's circle officer; the Times of India says 21 July). In the video she named two women and two men, former work acquaintances, as 'the reason I am hanging myself', said they had ruined her home and should be jailed for life, said they had threatened to reveal details of her pre-marriage life to her husband and in-laws, and cleared her husband. Her husband, a block-office clerk, told India Today (whose Etawah reporter also wrote the AajTak report) and, separately, India TV that after she returned from a Jaipur assignment the four had been harassing and blackmailing her with AI-made videos and photographs. Civil Lines police seized her phone, held the inquest and post-mortem and said they were verifying the videos; the Times of India reported on 27 July that a case of abetment to suicide had been registered on the husband's complaint and that the alleged main accused, a 30-year-old man, had been arrested on Saturday 25 July and sent to jail while the other three, including the two women, were absconding. The AI attribution rests on the husband's account as reported; her video, as quoted, names four people and describes threats to expose her pre-marriage life; the police statements read do not describe an examination of the material.

Core concern Critical reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 7 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 05/08/2026

Mar 2026IndiaUnidentified image and video tool

Indore: a first-year college student complained in May 2026 that a man she met at her sister's wedding edited her photographs with AI into objectionable images after she refused to marry him, blackmailed her with them and, after approaching her fiancé (the reports differ on how), caused her engagement to be broken off; she had been contemplating suicide before confiding in her family (Navbharat Times, Amar Ujala, Patrika, 12-13 May 2026)

Indore police registered an FIR at Banganga police station on a first-year college student's complaint reported on 12 and 13 May 2026. She said she had met the accused, a young man from the Indore area, at her sister's wedding in 2024, where he took some photographs of her; he later pressed her to marry him and, when she refused, threatened to edit her photographs with AI into objectionable (Navbharat Times, Amar Ujala) or obscene (Patrika) images and post them online. Navbharat Times reports that he edited the pictures with AI, blackmailed her with them and, after her family arranged her engagement elsewhere, reached her fiancé and showed him the edited pictures, after which the families quarrelled and the engagement was broken; Patrika says he went to the fiancé's home and intimidated him into breaking the match; Amar Ujala says he also threatened to kill her and her family and sent edited pictures when her family tried to reason with him, and that when her engagement took place about two months earlier he went to her house and made false allegations about her character in front of the prospective fiancé, after which the engagement broke. She went into severe mental distress and, according to Amar Ujala, had resolved to take a suicidal step before telling her family, who took her to the police. The FIR was registered under the IT Act and sections on criminal intimidation and defamation; police were searching for the accused.

Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 15/06/2026

27 Feb 2025 to 28 Feb 2025United StatesUnidentified image tool

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 Critical reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources · Added 09/03/2026

25 Oct 2025IndiaUnidentified image tool

Faridabad: 19-year-old student dies by suicide after blackmail with AI-morphed images of himself and his sisters

On 25 October 2025, a 19-year-old second-year BCom student at DAV College, Faridabad (Haryana), consumed sulphas tablets in his room in Baselwa Colony, Old Faridabad, and died during hospital treatment. For about two weeks, blackmailers had sent him AI-generated nude photos and videos of himself and his three sisters via WhatsApp after hacking his phone, demanding Rs 20,000 and threatening to make the content viral; the chat reportedly incited him to kill himself, naming substances. Police registered an FIR on 26 October 2025 at the Faridabad Old police station under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and sent his phone for forensic examination. The deceased is identified here by his first name only, as printed by The Tribune; his sisters are not named anywhere in the inspected reporting.

Core concern Critical reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 5 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 09/03/2026

Sept 2023SpainUnidentified image tool

Almendralejo, Spain: AI-generated nude images of at least 20 schoolgirls; 15 minors placed under supervised release

In September 2023 families in Almendralejo (Badajoz, Spain) reported that artificial-intelligence 'undressing' applications had been used to create fake nude images of local girls aged 11 to 17 from their social-media photographs, and that the images circulated in WhatsApp groups. Police counted 22 victims and identified 10 suspects, all minors, within days. On 20 June 2024 the Badajoz juvenile court, in an agreed judgment, held 15 minors responsible for 20 counts of child pornography and 20 counts against moral integrity and imposed one year of supervised release with an education programme.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 8 sources, 6 underlying accounts · Added 29/01/2026

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: 30/09/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.